How Good Was/is Marco Antonio Barrera?

a great fighter who had many wars

 

He is one of the best fighters of this generation and will be remembered as a great fighter and a great P4P fighter for what he achieved at super bantamweight, featherweight, and super featherweight. He was willing to face anybody and his wins over Morales twice, Hamed, Tapia, Ayala, McKinney, Kelley, Salud, and Juarez twice have earned him a certain spot in the HOF and he will most importantly be remembered as a warrior. If he beats Pacquiao (unlikely at this point), his legacy would skyrocket. I don't have him above Sanchez though who I believe is the greatest Mexican featherweight, but I rank him slightly ahead of Erik Morales (which could change if Morales beats Diaz) and ahead of Vicente Saldivar who is another great Mexican featherweight.

 

He's one of my favorites. A certain HOF lock. Still one of the smartest boxers still fighting IMO

 

he is good.
he was great.

 

No great fighter loses twice in their prime to Junior Jones.

 

Barrera is one of the greatest Mexican boxers ever. I think he was more complete than Chavez. Both had great left hooks to the body, both were brilliant pressure fighters, but Barrera was a much better boxer, especially on the backfoot. He really became a seasoned brilliant boxer after Morales defeated him in 2000. I always think Barrera was a bit more fluid technique wise, with Chavez being more robotic and compact.

Up until Barrera was beaten by Junior Jones he was often compared to Chavez. It was around the mid 90's that Chavez really started to show his age, while Barrera was the new kid on the block making a noise as a super-bantamweight.

Looking at his last fight with Marquez, he's still a force to be reckoned with. No question about it. But Pacquaio's pressure, power, and ability to take a punch will be too much for Barrera when they square off on October 6th.

 

Not good enough to be one of ESPN's 50 greatest fighters of all-time but, alas, somehow he made it.

To sum up his career, Jr Jones whooped his ass twice, Erik Morales whooped his ass once (twice depending on who you speak to), Barrera murdered Hamed into retirement, then whooped Erik Morales' ass, then (unfortunately) whooped Johnny Tapia's ass, whooped an old, shot Kevin Kelley's ass, had his ass whooped by Pacquiao, whooped Morales' ass once more for the road (but in between the Pacquiao loss and Morales win found just enough time to whoop the overrated Paulie Ayala's ass into retirement - who, to be fair, was stepping up in weight), then he decided to whoop Rocky Juarez' ass twice in a row just to show us that Rocky ain't that good (which we found out earlier anyway when the unheralded Humberto Soto easily whooped his ass), and then managed to get his ass whooped by a desperate Juan Manuel Marquez which somehow lines him up for a title shot in the fall against Pacquiao.

According to ESPN, that blurb that you just read somehow makes him the 44th greatest boxer to ever walk the planet.

 

He is the ultimate complete fighter and an ATG. On the outside, he has a perfect jab, can counter punch beautifully, and has great footwork. On the inside he has a great left hook to the body and can brawl with anybody. Also with these skills, he has a great chin, a warrior's heart, and he's still one of the smartest fighters today. It doesn't get much more complete than that.

Although I'm excited about the possibility of Barrera finishing his career on the highest note possible beating Pacquiao, I am worried that he will get KO'ed in his last big fight and on paper to future fans of boxing, the Marquez fight will look like a fight he got dominated in and clearly lost.

 

That's what you reduce MAB's career to, qj? Did you scour Boxrec for that? On any given night Jones could take out anyone. He was a two-time world champion.

The sign of a great fighter is how he came back from that with a vengeance...And he's still a force to be reckoned with.

 

loads of great fighters lose to one man,anyways poision was a beast tall hard to hit thats a good guy to lose to

 

Im a huge MAB fan but i'll try and be unbiased. Yea, its true Junior Jones beat him but before that Barrera beat Kennedy McKinney in a classic that i think was the first Boxing after Dark event. That fight was basically as good as the first Barrera/Morales fight. I havent heard anybody give my boy props for that. And theres also the performance against Hamed.

 

An OK Boxer? Barrera is one of the most complete/versatile fighters I have seen in my lifetime.

 

I've always been a Barrera fan, and favoured him over Morales when they fought. But Marquez in my opinion is a better fighter. Marquez is an under-achiever, which shows what I think of him when it comes to talent. He done very well as a featherweight, becoming the IBF/WBA champion, and captured the WBC super-featherweight title from Barrera, but he should have been in the mix with Barrera and Morales 5 or 6 years ago.

I think a prime Marquez would have beaten a prime Barrera.

 

I agree that Marquez is the most talented out of Morales, Barrera, and himself and that he is an underachiever. He doesn't have nearly the resume's of Barrera or Morales.

How do you see Morales-Marquez at 126 going with both at their best at that weight?