Érik Morales vs. Juan Manuel Márquez

Updated standings:

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33-11-1 Morales

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21-15-7 Márquez

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39-3-0 Márquez

71-51-8 edge to Márquez overall.

 

Yes but Márquez is the patron saint of urophages, which cancels out Morales' divinity. :think

 

Agree that Márquez's work at feather doesn't get enough credit. He was avoided but made the most of it and turned in some beautiful efforts to dominate some not great but still very good opponents.

Disagree to an extent on Morales being overrated. He deserves inclusion with the rest of the Fab-4 without question IMO, even if they all excelled in more individual standout aspects of the game than he did. Érik was just very well-rounded and fiercely determined to make up for what he lacked in "special abilities" that his peers had.

As for both having been under Arum, not sure that is true. Before he landed with Golden Boy, my recollection is that Juan and his brother Rafa had spent years as free agents. They worked a lot with Zanfer, who do have a loose but very positive and longstanding working relationship with Top Rank, so maybe therein stems your confusion?

Morales vs. Chico or Casa would have been nearly as much of a treat as versus Márquez.

Good point about the Raheem incident not happening in a vacuum, as it was foreshadowed with Guty. Neither is half the boxer Márquez is.

 

I'm kind of surprised, actually, that more people aren't taking a leap of faith on Comeback Morales (or the draw - the only remaining option from the nine given with not even a single vote!!) in Epoch 3. :think

When he was giving Maidana hell and whooping Cano people were tipping him in hypothetical match-ups with some top 15 welters and even higher ranked light welters.

I wonder if people are realizing where the cut-off for E3 is, and that we are talking about Limond/Maidana/Cano/Garcia I Morales vs. Katsidis/Ramos/Pac III/Fedchenko Márquez, and not Pac IV/Bradley/Alvarado Márquez.

 

Actually that raises a bit of a brain teaser...

Which version of Márquez was better - Epoch 3, or post-E3? :huh

Certainly his boxing was tidier in the Katsidis/Ramos/Pac III/Fedchenko days. His reflexes looked pretty shot in Pac IV, and Timbo had moments where he downright embarrassed him...but as counterweight against that, Márquez did settle into welter and develop considerably enhanced strength (cue the PED accusations :roll and his punches were clearly more potent after E3 than during.

 

Also, because of that decline in reflexes and gain in power, his style changed a bit to become more of a stalker-puncher than a fencer & countering specialist. Nacho also had more free time devoted to him as Rafa was no longer in the picture and Nacho had whittled down his camp and become more selective, and was able to concentrate fully on helping fine-tune Márquez's transition into a KO hunter.

 

Well, to be fair, people forget that Barrera had ano entire career and retired - long BEFORE reinventing himself with a virtual 180° turn in style - culminating with his defeat of Jiménez.

Barrera evolved more than any of his peers, gradually but DRAMATICALLY, over 23 years.