Barrera, Morales, Marquez, Pacquaio. The best fighter?

how can barrera be better than pacquiao? thats absurd.

 

Yes to all of that, plus JMM is also the better two fisted fighter.
He's just as effective punching with either hand, which is something that cannot be said of either Pac or MAB.

......for that reason I rate them......

1 Juan Manuel Marquez- The more complete of the four.

2 Erik Morales- A complete fighter, but a tad below Marquez in that he was alot slower, and not a cerebral as JMM.

3 Marco Antonio Barrera-Exellent overall fighter, but I feel he's a tad overrated in his boxing skill. In his prime was outboxed by both Junior Jones and Erik Morales when Morales chose the boxing route against him.

4 Manny Pacquiao- As been mentioned, phenomenal power and speed that make up for alot of his other definciencies, but is far below being the complete package.

 

1. Marquez
2. Morales
3. Barrera
4. Pac

 

This thread is not about head to head matchups......Pac beats MAB everytime, but it does'nt necessarily make him the better fighter.

A good example was mentioned in this thread earlier, Iran Barkley beat Tommy Hearns twice, but nobody in their right mind would rate Barkley the more complete fighter, in that instance its not even close.

 

Its hard to answer this type of questions because of the vagueness of criteria.
Technically, i would give it to JMM, he has the textbook style that is effective when he uses it. When it comes to aggression and offense, id give it to Pac and EM simply because thats their best attributes, MAB on the other hand leads them in ring generalship. While they may have their own weaknesses, it is not often discussed because their track record showed they succeed more than they fail. i based all these from previous fights they had with others and each other. The best fighter is better analyzed on their P4p ranking.

 

barrera closely followed by morales,3rd for me will be decided mar 15(im pickin jmm)

 

Morales
Barrera
Pacquiao
Marquez


I based my list on who I'd pick to be at my side in a bar fight :hat

Morales and his mighty cajones surely would have been awesome.
Barrera's not so legal blows would have been okay in dark dance floor.
Pacquiao would surely try to impress the ladies with his wares.
Marquez... well, he counter punches quite effectively.

 

Morales
Barrera
Pacquiao
Marquez

But they're all pretty close to each other.

 

I love 'em all. **** who is better, they all give it everything. Equal in my book.

It's like trying to pick between a blonde and a brunette.

I just like women.

 

I agree! Pac has a lot of Talent and the WILL to win! He isn't the most Technically sound fighter and he isn't the most skilled....Yet he still wins! How....his Talent Level is head and shoulders above most of his opposition....even of the Greats he has faced. If he had the same kind of skill his rivals possessed OMG! He'd be a smaller Floyd Mayweather with more ferocity!

 

Right on Bro! :good

 

Pac did fight all three just about back to back to back.....

Lets look at what happened.

Pac humiliates and destroys MAB!
I think many in this forum believe that MAB's lack of a right hand to counter Pac's best punch (the straight left) is what poses tremendous problems for MAB.
In other words, Pac's southpaw style along with speed and power to go with it, is a bad style matchup for MAB.


Then after Pac has a huge 1st round knocking down JMM three times and busting his nose. Pac lets a fighter who is having difficulty breathing properly through his nose, propinate him a schooling from rounds 3 to 12.
I give alot of credence to rating fighters who are put in a jam, and are able to figure out a way to turn the fight in their favor.
In other words, a fighter who can turn a fight in their favor when adversity is smacking them in the face! It shows their versatility and ability to adjust their game.
JMM surely did that vs Manny Pacquiao.

Then Pac faces Erik Morales, who by his own admission watched the JMM fight numerous times and used it as a blueprint to box the pants off of Pac.


I take all of this into account in assesing Pacquiao.
Pac did then beat Erik Morales twice soon there after, and credit should go to Pac for doing so. Pac beat still an exellent fighter in Morales.
......but was it the same Morales that had defeated him???

Imo no! Personally I would have given Pac the benefit of the doubt and more credit, had Morales not looked so awful against Zahir Raheem.
The Raheem fight before Pac's wins over Morales were an indicator to me that Morales was on a fast downward spiral.

When I look at Pac's resume at 126 and above, his resume in terms of caliber of opposition past the first Morales fight is'nt any better than anyone else's in the same fab-4 grouping.

His best competition was in the span of meeting MAB, JMM, and Morales for the first time and almost in sucession.
In this span Pac officially went 1-1-1, and imo should have been 1-2 with the lone win being against MAB.

I agree, alot of variables should be taken into account and not just one.
.....and I am doing just that.....

When I rate a fighter to come to the conclusion of who is the better overall, I put a heavy emphasis on how I think they would do vs every different style of figher there is......and out of the four, JMM imo is more adaptable to deal with the different styles in that he has more strenghths and does more things better than the others.

This factor is what leads to the order that I rate them......

1 JMM
2 Morales
3 MAB
4 Pac

A first round beating yes.....but that was'nt the case for the remainder of the fight, and I think that most reasonable fight fans would agree with me.
More impressive to me was the fighter that was able to deal with the adversity of taking that 1st round beating and do a 180 and propinate a schooling in the face of not being able to breathe properly through his nose!:deal

How does one deal with adversity?? Big plus in the scheme of rating fighters.
:deal

 

"pure boxer"
1-Morales was clearly the best boxer of all four. Although he rarely fought instead brawled.

2-Marquez Uses his pure boxing skill more often then the 4, He schooled Pacman 2-on in their first fight. but i still think morales was better.

3-barrera was a pretty good boxer but more of a brawler. Showed good skills in the Juarez fight and Hamed.

4-Pacman cant really box so he is last.


All- around id say prime Morales-1, marquez-2,Barrera-3,Pacman-4

Although manny may have beat all of them now, id say they all would beat manny in their prime, except barrera.

 

Pacquiao.

 

I'd say Barerra.