*** The Marco Antonio Barrera super-thread ***

Also I may be in the minority here, but Pacquiao was not some green future great by the time he fought Barrera. He was already 90-95% the finished product by then. And his brief tenure at the 126 pound division represents his physical peak.

While Pacs absolute 100% best version of his prime was the Diaz-DLH-Hatton-Cotto run he was pretty much the Pacauiao that we all know from Lucero to Margarito.

Because I see a lot of people say that Barrera got destroyed by a green Pacquiao. Which is just not true. Pac was definitely NOT green then.

Also, it bothers me when people say Barrera was done by the time he fought Pac. Which was BS. He was in the middle of the most dominant featherweight run in like a half century. And then would continue that AFTER the Pacquiao loss. Barrera was maybe 90-95% of what he once was in the first Pac fight. Obviously not as great as he once was. Not at his absolute peak anymore. But still very much THE Barrera we all know. Barrera was basically Barrera until the Juarez fight. Around that time was when Barrera had stopped looking like Barrera.

 

Are you iSAL...
(I know its hard not to, but don't take that as an insult lol

 

You got to give him some slack for the 2nd Pacquiao fight. By that point Barrera was a shell of his former self.

I cant think of any fighter of his caliber who has bounced back from losses the way Barrera did. He lost to Jones and then came back against Morales and really took it to him. He lost to Morales officially, but then beat Hamed easy and then beat Morales. He then lost to Pacquiao and everybody thought he was done. But then he beat Morales and went on a pretty damn good mini stretch at 130.

 

Fresher is only better if you think there is a direct and linear correlation between freshness and ability. Which is not true. Otherwise professional boxing would have been historically dominated by a bunch of 19 year olds. Which it never has been.

Some examples.

Manny Pacquiao was fresher in the mid 2000s. He's better in the late 2000s.

MAB was fresher in the late 90s. He's better in the early 2000s.

Tommy Hearns was fresher in the early 80s. He's better in the mid 80s.

Marvin Hagler was fresher in the late 70s. He's better in the early 80s.

Which brings me to my point. Morales was fresher in the first fight in February 2000. He's better in 2002.

Correct me if I'm wrong you chose Morales II was Barrera's best official win because that was the highest caliber opponent that Barrera defeated. Well then going by that logic, Morales II is a better victory (if official results were different) than Morales I.

 

If it was just the Pacquiao fight I wouldn't have even mentioned it, but the Jones fight he was in his prime and it happened again against Rock Juarez, to a lesser extent of course because Juarez just isn't at the level that Jones and Pacquiao were but still MAB played it ultra conservative against him because Rocky got the better of MAB in exchanges.
.......and remember I was responding to our friend who said MAB showed no fear in rematches, aside from the Morales fights, those were MAB's rematches.

 

Excellent thread, well in mate.
Makes me see him different tbh, I always viewed as a Tier 2/3 Mexican, definitely not Tier 1 stil, but my estimation has definitely gone up.

Makes me wanna do another, more in depth, one for Ezzard Charles. If I do, can we have it so it stays in General? Educate a few heads and what not.

 

I will do when my phones fixed, the old one I wrote earlier this year isn't as detailed as I'd like but here it is if your interested.
https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/ezzard-charles-the-thread.633633/

I agree MAB stayed around too long, but as a Mexican Warlord (and like so many before him) he didn't know when to call it a day.

 

I thought I was a Morales guy. Then came the failed drugs test. Little did I know I should of been MAB from the off.

 

I was there when they disgracefully robbed him against Amir Khan. That fight not being ruled a NC was an absolute farce.

 

It was Don King promoted. I remember he was sat about 3 rows in front of me to my left and I was sat next to Choi Tseveenpurev and Shinny Bayaar if you remember those guys.

Then Khan headbutts MAB and opens up a terrible gash that flows right into his eyes. Khan shoeshines his way to a lead on the cards and the second it gets to the 4th round and long enough to go to the cards the fight doctor suddenly decides Marco can't continue. It was complete BS.