20 years ago: Emmanuel Dapidran "Ang Pambansang Kamao" Pacquiao vs. Marco Antonio "El Barón" Barrera

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...or, if you rather, "Pac-Man" vs. "Baby Faced Assassin" I.

One has to wonder, in a universe without a Pacquiao, how differently history regards Barrera? As it stands he's a bona fide ATG, probably comfortably on any list of top 15 all time from Mexico.

In late 2003 he was on fire, until running afoul of the upstart Filipino southpaw extinguisher. He was the Ring Magazine and lineal featherweight champion, with a recent string of victories that included Kevin Kelley, Johnny Tapia, the rematch with Érik Morales and Naseem Hamed. Pacquiao was still basically just some rail thin kid with a quick hard left cross that had emerged from obscurity to upset Ledwaba. This match was the double turnstile which set each man's career momentum hurtling in opposite trajectories.

If you conjure a world in which Pacquiao is never born, or never laces up a glove (maybe he decides not to drop out from school at 14; maybe he becomes a fisherman) - what does that do for Barrera's legacy? This wrinkle in our timeline would presumably not affect his schedule immediately following: victories to come over Ayala, Morales to clinch their rivalry, Fana, Peden, and twice over Juárez. If he were to replicate that run, sans the Pacquiao loss, and retire after the rematch with Rocky in 2006 (as he should have in hindsight, as literally nothing afterward reflected even remotely well on him and the signs of becoming shot were already evident) and leave his final defeat as Morales in 2000 - at that point I don't think we're debating top 15 from Mexico. I think we're putting him in that conversation just behind JCC and Chava, tbh.