critics of Pacquaio dont give him credit for beating the Mexican legend Marco Antonio Barrera...they say Barrera was past his prime when he lost to Manny.. 1.Barrera was on an 8 fight winning run...he was the #2 p4p..and had won his last fight with a brutal TKO win. 2.Barrera was the universal featherweight champion..he hadnt lost in 3 years...and had beaten Hamed,Morales and Ayala. 3.critics say Barrera had surgery before the Pacquiao fight in which the Docs put a metal plate in his skull...yeah the surgery took place in 1999..four years before the pacquiao fight so i hope you guys can agree that Barrera was in great condition before the fight and the 'past his prime' excuses are plain BS what do you think?
Barrera had some other issues during his training camp that came up and may have affected him. That said, I would say he was at least close to his prime, if not in it, and Pacquiao simply represented a bad style matchup for him. Barrera couldn't counterpunch well enough to stave off the Pacquiao whirlwind at that time, and couldn't trade with him on the inside due to Pacquiao's faster hands and edge in power. He came back off the loss to beat his great rival Erik Morales in the rubber match of their series, winning the WBC Super Featherweight title, and proceeded to defend that belt for three years until losing it in a fairly close fight to JMM. So I'd say any criticism there is unwarranted.
PAC moving up in weight to beat Barerra is greater then Floyd entire career, even if Floyd beat Drainelo.
Barrera was a solid favorite in this fight coming off wins over Hamed, Morales II, Tapia and Kelly. I don't see how anyone would consider him past prime coming off all those big wins.
Must admit, it's a new one on me. I've heard some people use his camp as an excuse but even that never gained much traction.
Someone just did immediately after you wrote that. 'Critics' dont say Barrera was past prime. Just the high-school Floyd fans. And that's totally negligible. Point is, all the experts know that a green Pac beat a prime Barrera, and then went on to beat a past prime Barrera years later.
My bad, I thought he said 2007. Not 2003. Who said Barrera was past it in 2003? I have never heard that.
Nobody says that . There was a fire in Cali that affected his camp he had to stop it half way through and move it else where . And the brain surgery happend in 99 but did not come to light till right before the 1st PAC man fight , which prompted so called experts to start saying he should retire . So all the brain surgery questions the fire and a few other personal reasons is why pol say that . I would say prime yes , at his best not by a long shot . Hope this clears up your issue .