Érik Morales vs. Juan Manuel Márquez

The thing about Marquez is you just have to deal with the results of close decisions. Yea he thinks he won the Pacquiao fights. But it is what is. He lost. I think what eats him most if he didn't officially pick up a victory in the first two fights.

And lets not pretend he wasn't the beneficiary of some close decisions. Like the the Barrera fight which if not for that BS 3 point swing he probably loses.

 

Imo...both are capable of dropping each more in the third epoch...each have slowed down somewhat... especially Morales.

 

Do you think that Barrera has a slight stylistic edge over JMM and Morales? It seemed like after the Junior fights, that Barrera could roll, and return fire very well...that served him very well...against orthodox fighters anyway.

 

I thought about the third Morales Pacquiao fight and the resignation more.

Morales could always go toe to toe. But against Pacquiao he finally ran into a tornado that he couldn't stand toe to toe with.

Morales was never the less physical fighter ever. Then he finally found a guy who was more physical than him. And he refused to stomach it and box his way to victory.

 

Barrera slower pace and dual hands are stylistic problems for Marquez IMO. Marquez can take any one thing away from you. But against Barrera he was troubled by the versatility of a Barrera.

And Barrera had a style advantage over Morales too. Because again his versatility and body punching. Barrera because of his versatility gives him the style advantage over most fighters.

Pacquiao was a style nightmare for Barrera. Because Pacquiao won't sit still for his body attack. And Barrera is vulnerable to straight lefts after he throws his left jab.

 

You're probably right but even as he was being physically overwhelmed he still chose to strafe Pacquiao.

 

Good stuff...I liked that breakdown(s) and agree.
Addendum: But we are talking about incremental advantages (imo)...these guys are close.

 

Well said...Do you think JMM took a page from this approach when he went up in weight, against Diaz, Juarez, Casamayor etc...? He didn't against Pac though for the reasons stated.

 

I don't agree.
Marquez' dissatisfaction has always been lured towards the judges.
He's never done himself any favors with them as he's always criticized their intentions and lack of integrity.
His fights with Casamayor, Diaz, and Katsidis were competitive, but not competitive enough to how close the judges had those fights scored.
Judges don't like being critiqued and they've certainly made Marquez pay in that regard.

Pacquiao is completely out of Marquez' system, you just see it in him everytime he speaks on the issue.
Its not really about sticking it to Pacquiao.
A fifth fight simply will never happen because Marquez knows whats real, and whats real is that the only way he gets a victory over Pacquiao is to put him in a coma again.
Aint going to get better than taking Pacquiao out at his own game!

I would go as far as to say that out of the mini-fab four, I think Marquez is going to end up the fighter that's most at piece with his body of work. I really do!

 

Yup...I agree on both counts.
Pac took him to the brink of hell though...