Let's settle this once and for all - Who's the best prime for prime?

Agree to disagree..

 

Right now I have to go with Erik Morales.

In my book he beat MAB twice and only lost to MAB once he was wau out of his prime in the third fight, and he beat Pac clearly while he was close to being a shot fighter.

JMM would probably come second.

 

Barrera himself would disagree with you. He was limited when he fought Jones in 1996. His defense was poor, he was one dimensional, he was open to right hands, and he lacked adaptability.

Barrera couldn't have boxed like he did in 2001 against Hamed if it happened 5 years earlier. Not polished enough I'm afraid.

 

erik morales is the best ever out of that 3 and its not even close. Plus the fact that he was the only one to beat pac(clearly) along the 3 of them, and he didn't have to rely on fan judgements of robbery for that.

And morales is undefeated during his prime, h2h i'd pick him even against marquez at 126 but at 130 i'd say 60-40 in favor of morales eeking out a close decision. Marquez is the lesser of the 3, a past prime mab was giving him trouble

 

Hell no marquez aint the lesser of the 3!

i'd say he is 2nd right after Morales.

 

Erik Morales was the best among the trio

 

BARRERA HANDS DOWN! Barrera beat Morales twice both in their prime. Did you guys see the fight between Marquez and Barrera? Barrera fought a much fresher Marquez and did very good against him.

Barrera was the best prime for prime between them.

 

I'm leaning towards Morales....

But there is no wrong answer here. I mean, prime Barrera has wins over Morales and Hamed. That's pretty impressive, however you look at it.

 

I voted MAB but i have to admit that after last year the case for JMM is very strong.

 

A lot of people who commented are looking at guys they fought. I am looking at how they did against each other. We will never know on Morales vs Marquez, but here is how my list goes.

1. Barrera
2. Morales or Marquez
3. Marquez or Morales

Either way, Barrera was the better of them.

 

Not sitting on the fence at all :yep

 

<<<<<<<<<<<<

Barrera obviously

I thing JMM struggled to beat him when he was past his prime. For me that punch he threw after the K/D was nothing and if it hadn't have been for him throwing it/ref halting procedings Marco

This content is protected

have finished it.

And also with the 'Trilogy' in mind. Barrera Clearly won the first fight CLEARLY ! He prob should have lost the 2nd fight (but it was a close call) and I dont think there's any questions over the 3rd. Therefore he beats Morales. Think they were both close to prime for that and Jmm was closer to his prime when he got the nod over MAB

Barrera clear winner

 

You can make good cases for all. But.. i guess my vote would have to go to Erik Morales! I think upon balance his is the strongest case, and his prime lasted longest & was the most impressive... (and only really ended when he began to struggle to make 130... and had to dry himself out like a raisin for Pacquiao II & III... those beatings took a lot out of him).

Marquez... it's hard to say what his prime is.. or WHEN it started, I should say.
Pacquiao I?? (2nd round onwards, lol?)... or do we go harsher and say Marquez's true peak was hit in Pacquiao II, Casamayor & then Juan Diaz (where he did begin to look like he had slowed down A LITTLE BIT... but we'll have to wait & see against Floyd).
That Casamayor victory was subtly HUGE in significance...-- Casamayor is arguably the best fighter on all 3 resumés that isn't a common-shared foe by any 2 (i.e. No MAB, No Manny, No Erik).



Looking at just pure Quality, though.... neither Morales nor Barrera managed to solidify themselves as universal t3 p4p'ers... nevermind for as long as Marquez who has only been a whisker behind Pacquiao for a long time in many people's eyes.

Long story short(ened), vote goes to Morales upon balanced-thinking (with longevity of prime, quality of victories and combined-quality of foes conquered, being key). But if you took the best Morales, best Barrera & best Marquez... I think it goes like this:

JMM beats Morales (2-1)
Morales beats Barrera, LA GUERRA x 3 -- we already saw it, but this time Morales would get the better of the scorecards (2-1)
JMM-Barrera (2-1)



styles make fights.

what's interesting though is that if Morales had retired after Pacquiao-I... would he have been considered the undisputed 2nd greatest boxer in Mexican history?

 

atsch What ?

 

Barrera- Base on his head to head match up with morales. He won 2 of the 3 fights. As far as accomplishments they are about even winning titles in 3 division.