1. Morales - His only losses are vs elite talents and mostly at the end of his career against top guys while shot to bits. Apart from his great victories, I love his style and he is the personification of a warrior. 2. Marquez - The Pacquiao fights made him a legend. The way Mayweather toyed with him is a stain on his legacy for me. But, again a fighter who undertook all challenges and put on counterpunching clinics on occasion. 3. Barrera - Derailed Hamed and edged the Morales trilogy but has the least impressive resume of the 3 in my view. Also, he lost to Amir Khan…..unforgivable even if he was 47 at the time
Morales to me rates the highest and it's clear, but he's not blowing them out of the water either. He's the only man to defeat Manny Pacquiao in his prime. He's one of just two men to beat a prime Barrera. His only loss in his prime was twice to Barrera and he was at one point 49-2 before the wheels fell off. Also from a H2H perspective a prime Morales matches up better to most ATG Featherweights than either Barrera or Morales. Erik Morales despite being known as an ATG fighter is actually underrated. He's probably one of the top 3-5 greatest fighters of this millennium so far. Second is Barrera. Who is a 3 weight world champion. He did beat Morales twice. I felt he clearly won both the 1st and 3rd fight. He is also the only man to defeat Naseem Hamed. You can't wish the losses to Junior Jones away, but I have a feeling a 2000 Barrera would have beaten Jones or at least put up a much better showing. Barrera is arguably the most skilled offensive fighter of the millennium so far. Just an otherworldly technical skillset offensively. Third is Marquez. Unlike Barrera and Morales who are bona fide ATG's I have Marquez as a fringe ATG who just barely makes the ATG cut. Nevertheless a great fighter, but not on the same caliber as Marquez or Morales. Marquez has already lost to Pacquiao and I believe prime versions of Barrera and Morales beat Marquez. Additionally, Marquez's resume sans 1 Opponent (Manny Pacquiao) is not as strong as the other two Mexicans. He is also very prone to being outboxed. He can be put out of his element by another pure boxer.
1 - Juan Manuel Marquez 2 - Erik Morales 3 - Marco Antonio Barrera It's exquisitely close. I have all between 85 and 88.
Barrera Marquez Morales My basis is on my perception of skill level MAB and JMM are very very close. Both have more talent then Morales.
