Érik Morales vs. Juan Manuel Márquez

I'm really torn on Epoch 2. I feel like the earlier in the epoch it happens the more I favor Morales. Certainly in late 2004 and early 2005 you have to give the nod in form to Morales, with the Barrera tiebreaker just as entertaining and close and fought at just as high a skill level as I & II...and of course the feather in his cap, that marvelous showing in Pac 1. Marquez did soundly outbox two good fighters in Salido and Polo during this stretch (one VERY good, in Siri's case) but he still had some wrinkles in his game to iron out, given his struggles in 2006 with the Dragon (although I did cut off the epoch before that year due to Morales' collapse). It wasn't until he was toying with Jandaeng and Jaca that JMM really broke into full stride and became a h2h powerhouse, IMO. Both of them, while not world beaters, are solid underrated talents and he mopped the floor with them. Needless to say a 2006 Márquez would knock a contemporaneous Morales spark out. I ultimately settled on a draw, because Márquez was very hungry after the Pac I loss and may have risen to Morales' challenge and willingly met him in the deep trenches like Barrera and Pacquiao did...but were I to lean in either direction, gun to my head, Morales.

I feel more confident that Morales takes E1, for the reasons stated by Rummy; he was the finished article by then and seasoned on that stage, while Márquez was already excellent but still relatively immature.

The one I'm most sure of is E3. Morales put on a hell of an encore in his career, and I'll always laud the heart he showed giving Maidana and Garcia such unexpected headaches, but Márquez was done cooking by then, al dente, just way too much for what EM had left.

 

Eight voters in, the standings:

E1... 5-2-0 Morales
E2... 3-3-2
E3... 6-1-0 Márquez

 

16-11-2 edge to Márquez overall.

 

Everybody in the world thought he was shot after Pacquiao III but we all were disabused of that notion when Maidana, Cano, and Garcia I happened.

Morales was "temporarily shot", or rather made a deal with the devil or bumped a Super Mario brick to nab a green 1-up mushroom, however you want to put it. We have seen this phenomenon before. Around the same time Morales was getting fat during his first retirement, in 2009, countryman Jorge Arce was being written off as ENTIRELY shot to bits following the Darchinyan and Nongqayi I losses. He then shocked everybody with a 9-0-0-1 (6) run that included revenge on Nongqayi and the upset over WV2, looking tremendous and near-prime (despite a few hairy moments of stumbling and showing his true ring age here and there, as with Jesus M. Rojas) before running afoul of Nonito Donaire.

 

Somehow, inexplicably, counterintuitive though it may be, 2010-2012 Morales >>>>>>>>>>>>> (late) 2005-2006 Morales. :conf

 

To an extent we saw it with Cotto as well.

Margarito I and Pacquiao were supposed to be his death rattle. Stick a fork in Miguel, he's DONE.

...nope.

 

Gabriel Campillo, too. After he was kayoed by Kovalev and Fonfara he "didn't belong in the ring anymore". Then he purchases his own extra life and snatches Thomas Williams Jr.'s zero.

This sort of thing happens, bizarre as it may seem.