Was this an overrated win in hindsight because of the losses to Jones that followed? What were Barrera`s top 5 wins? Would this fight be in the top 5 for Barrera?
Do you even watch the fights and study thier history or just look for random threads to start? But just because I have 5 spare minutes. McKinney was a solid SBW and around 92-94 he was certainly in the upper echelon of the weight. The loss to Bungo takes some of the shine off of McKinney getting his first loss. Kennedy was still a highly regarded challenger around 1996 (coincidence?) but not seen as a world beater. He gave Marco a good test and if I remember dropped him in the encounter. MAB gave a good account of himself in winning the fight. He stopped and dropped McKinney a few times and was several rds ahead on the cards. Not sure where it rates among MAB’s best wins and don’t have time to evaluate. But it is the type of solid win a good champ needs over ranked contenders. It would be a good win for anyone. I think the Jones fights were more a stylistic conundrum than a reflection of ability.
I watched one of Barrera`s fights during this period and he wasn`t impressive, a few years later I saw him lose to Manny, I saw him in the rematch with Manny and he had improved since the loss, he was one of the fastest counter punchers of all time, I also watched his last fight vs Khan.
Well rather than starting all these quora and 1996 based threads....go sit and watch some fights. Because when your evaluation is I saw 2 Barrera fights and I think....well it sounds very uninformed (not saying you are). But your contrast of RJJ to GGG, sounds like you have not watched and researched. Go watch some boxing and slow down on these threads... Oh well never mind
Also did you watch the Jones fights against McKinney and Barrera? He is not just a journeyman. He had some solid wins against Canizales, MAB Tracy Patterson. Not a great but certainly a formidable fighter in his own right
Was Orlando or Gaby that he beat? I did see the fight between Jones and McKinney and it was just a wild brawl, I`ve only seen clips of the Barrera vs Jones and it was just a cae of Barrera not being able to close the distance vs a taller fighter at that stage of his career. I hope you don`t mind me reminding you of the Marciano vid that I pasted, but that`s how you close distance and Marciano had the shortest arms of any heavyweight champ.
No! That is 1 way to close distance and Marciano was great at it. Also his arm, height and weight are well documented and discussed. This is hardly a revelation
Thanks I heard about this fight about a year ago somewhere, but I thought Orlando was past it, I did see Orlando fight Hardy twice though and he looked better than Jones in his 2nd fight vs Billy, maybe it was the reach and power, I will watch this by the way. I also saw McKenzie box Gaby`s ears off, I started a thread about that around a month ago, any brownie points?
Barrera's Top 5 Wins: 1.) W12 Erik Morales (fight III) 2.) TKO 12 Kennedy McKinney 3.) W 12 Naseem Hamed 4.) TKO 10 Paulie Ayala 5.) W 12 Rocky Juarez (fight II) His clinic over Robbie Peden and his TKO of the underrated Jose Valbuena are in the running for this list as well. Some could include the W in the second fight with Morales as a top 5 win, given Morales' stature as an unbeaten champ at the time, but imho Morales was looking really burnt out in his previous few fights. He was in a sort of mid-career slump. And because Barrera used a really bad game plan he arguably deserved to drop that fight. It was a weird fight for both guys, each underperforming. Both guys looked way better in the 1st and 3rd fights. As for McKinney, I think he got a big head from being an Olympian and having all that attention showered on him too early. He had drug problems, rumors of poor training happens, and never really amounted to his full potential. He had a pistol of a right hand though.
Many feel that Orlando won this fight....although the 119-110 or whatever it was score card is way....WAY out there
