Erik Morales is one of my favourite fighters ever..I love his style more than Barrera etc. But I just think that Barrera is a better fighter (by a hairs width, but still better) and after all, Barrera did get the upper hand over Morales in their trilogy.
I can't think of anyone on the list of Morales' opposition who is better than Naseem Hamed and Tapia (and a VERY narrow loss to a prime Marquez when Barrera was off his prime)...seeing that Barrera also beat Paulie Ayala.
Depends on how you score fights I guess. I think Morales beat mab at fw, Diaz at lw and maidana at lww. More than that though his victory over Pac is better than any victory mab has. I thought he achieved more at sbw despite getting a gift in the first fight. He deserved the rematch and had a good run at fw despite moving up before Pac and Juan were on the seen. After the trilogy loss to mab he was declining but still found ways to beat Pac and take top ranked opponents to close decisions.
agreed. he did what barrera couldn't, what marquez couldn't. he had a stellar career before that and past his prime, he beat a top 5 p4p guy. that win may push him past barrera for me. plus, his latter career exploits are still impressive. i love barrera and feel he was always a hair better than morales when watching them in the ring, but based on resumes and careers, morales probably takes it for me
Why do some rate Morales above Barrera? There's a few reasons. Whilst a lot of fans on this website rate Morales higher simply out of favouritism, others can usually back it up with solid reasoning. For example, a lot of posters felt Morales deserved the nod in 2002. I'm not one of them but I concede that the fight was super close and that both fighters had a case in the scoring. Then once you consider Morales has defeated the likes of Pacquiao and Jones, two fighters who brutalised MAB, then it's not too difficult to make a case for the man from Tijuana. For the record, I consider MAB to have been the greater of the two.
They rank so close to each other, therefore some people will rank Morales above. Barrera got the upper hand in their trilogy indeed. Morales has a win over Pacquiao however.