Are you ****ing trippin ? pac was young when he fought Barrera, Berrera flipped his odometer he had well over 50 fights with some hellava wars in between. four of the fighter you mention were shop worn to the max, and one was trying to pick up the pieces of his shattered pride, confidence and career. there no way pac picked up any hard miles from those fights.
A young Barrera couldn't even beat Junior Jones. What makes people think he could beat Manny? Probably if Manny was 13 years old LOL. Power punchers always gave Barrera problems. His two fights with Jones prove that. He had more success against fighters who couldn't hurt him. The only power puncher Barrera had success with was Hamed. But that was because Hamed doesn't throw that many punches. Even Juarez gave him problems in their first fight. Which would explain why he made Juarez use bigger gloves in their second fight. Face it Barrera never liked to be hurt. He acts like a baby when his opponents hurt him. Some "Mexican Warrior", only Morales deserves that moniker.
You aren't gonna get an honest reply here. Pac has 49 fights and has been in some serious wars. Let's say he losses to Cotto. 75% of the people saying that MAB was shot/past it would not even consider him being even slightly worn from those wars. But they will immediately bring it up for any of his opponents. It's a joke.
I thought Pacquiao was at his "prime" when he fought Barrera. Yeah your right I forgot Pacquiao likes to fight at a slow pace and doesn't get hit much, what was I thinking? Of course he doesn't pick up any hard miles.
i'm probably one of the very few barrera fans who thinks pacquiao beat him at or near his prime in their first encounter. however, the same cannot be said about erik morales vs. pacquiao. erik was clearly on the downslide when he met pacquiao and totally washed up when the third fight came.
The thing that ****'s me off most is that even though Morales was not clearly the same fighter he was still good enough 1 year later to get robbed by judges against David Diaz i feel. I really think most fans have it in for Pacman because of *******s. I mean even a old Morales is still a decent win. IMO. Because most fighters that are still old and future HOFamers are still better and smarter than top ten Ring guys sometimes. Lets be honest a Old Morales should have got the decision against Diaz who was ranked 4 at the time of there fight at Lightweight. Weve seen old guys like Jones Jr and Hopkins still look better than Prime guys like Pavlik etc. It shits me to know end that fans will simply diss a fighter for fighting a old version of a great fighter. Hatton gets it for beating Tszyu Calzaghe gets it for beating Jones Jr Tyson got from beating Holmes Mayweather gets for Dela Hoya And so on and so on. But half the time these guys were better than say at least 5 guys ranked in the top ten. There are so many cases like this. Now i agree that fighters should not get as much recginition as fighting them in there Prime but. Hatton's win over Tszyu is better than his win over a Prime Malginaggi. Calzaghes win over Jones is surely better than his win over a Prime Bika. Tysons win over Holmes is way better than his Prime win over Tubbs. Mayweather's win over ODH is way better than beating a Prime Gatti. Its sort of bad that we hate on boxers for fighting a guy that will draw a bigger crowd and more money than fight say a Prime #3or 5 ranked Ring guy at there weight. I say all 3 fights against Morales are great for Pacman no matter what anyone else thinks. Because would you rather see that fight or Pacman back then say face a Prime guy that not many knew.
boppa, you have some good points but the one thing i want an answer for is, after pacquiao beat morales in their rematch, why then did he fight him a third time? regarding marquez, why didn't pacquiao give marquez a rematch after taking his title? surely, this was the one fight everyone wanted because most people felt marquez had beaten pacquiao. i just think this is chicken-**** on pacquiao's part by avoiding marquez while he gave morales a third fight after ko'ing morales!
Im not sure maybe a deal had been done behind closed doors with Morales already. Maybe they both thought they made so much money why not do it again. I dont think he was scared to face JMM a second time but maybe it came down to Management or maybe Arum felt they wouldnt make the same sort of Money Morales could bring in. Most of the time about 80% the fighter will be fighting on there managements decisions for who will make them money. Most of the time its business.