My analysis of his career hasn't gone beyond boxrec and watching the KO8 win over Olivares. Why don't people put him in their Top 10 Mexican fighters of all time? Herrera's wins: Olivaresx2 - Won the rivalry C.Castillo - rematch Rodolfo Martinezx2 - Herrera was prematurely stopped in the third fight after a knockdown (completely questionable as their previous fights had many knockdowns) Anaya Borkhorsor - Doesn't this warrant a top 10 position, getting the better of Olivares AND Chucho Castillo being a big reason.. As a few of you may know, I'm learning about Fighting Harada and that era in general (Will appreciate any good sources etc.) This golden era is separated into two different phases I think: Jofre-Harada and Olivares-C.Castillo-R.Herrera (not to be confused with Antonio Herrera - a contender in that era)
Stop going off boxrec. Borkorsor beat the **** out of him, although Herrera scored the only knockdown. Castillo sparked him in the first fight and has a solid argument for the rematch. Still, Herrera is greater than Ricardo Lopez. Maybe misses out on the top 10.
Because despite that era being full of excellent Mexican fighters.A golden era for them in many ways, they didn't have the benefit of an Internet boxing media and forum following to annoint every one an all-time great and argue their corner consistently like the last crop of really good Mexicans do.:yep Thus guys like Herrera, Castillo, Efren Torres, ****o and others can somtimes get a bit forgotten.
Golden era it may be...but how would Barrera and Morales fare with the best i.e likes of Chucho Castillo, Rodolfo Martinez, Herrera, Harada etc. etc.? I'm pretty sure I know the outcome of Barrera-Harada already.
The modern era elite crop were bigger fighters, more suited to feather.It's not really suitable for matching most of them up unless you do it just as a hypothetical p4p thing. Harada was by no means a natural feather and only really had the one great performance there.He was so good in that fight against an excellent natural feather champ i could still see him beating Marco h2h, especially if Barrera took him lightly as a smaller man like he seemed to do with Pac.If he fought flat he'd get overrun and widely outworked.I'd probably bet on Barrera to avenge the loss like Famechon did if given the chance though, and to win a series of fights.Harada just didn't have the drive or consistency anymore.
btw that first post was mostly a joke, though it is kinda true for why someone like herrera might not be rated as highly as he possibly could.Leaving him out of a top ten isn't exactly a great crime either, though.
MAB was a monster between 1999-2002. Harada doesn't really pack enough firepower to beat that version of MAB at 126lbs. The way I see it, if you're an offensive-minded fighter then you're going to have to hurt Marco to beat him. I don't think Harada can hurt MAB.
I think Herrera gets "underrated" today for two reasons: 1. Despite having a number of very good wins on his resume, he never carved out a consistent or dominant run at the top - the same reason Lou Ambers also gets underrated today IMO. 2. He doesn't seem to get full credit for his wins over Olivares - unfairly, IMO - even though Olivares came into those fights straight off of some very good wins, and went on to score some more good wins afterward.