I agree with most here: Barrera 1 If you like Marco it was kinda hard to watch. Pac raised eyebrows with the W, that's for damn sure.
Indeed MAB was my fav fighter at the time,i felt sick watching him getting beat from pilar to post by Pacquiao. But instead of being bitter or buthurt like some of the ***s that have seen Pac beat their fav fighter i became a fan of the little fella.
Erik Morales II wasn't a great victory, Morales came off a defeat against some c class fighter which he lost nearly every round & couldn't even make the weight for the fight, came in at 133 i think.
Great thread. Very hard for me to pick, too many to pick from, if I pick Barrera then I feel I'm disrespecting Morales, Marquez, DLH and others who are all greats. If I have to I'll go for the first Barrera fight only for how shocking it was to everyone, no one really saw that coming and not in that fashion, even ones that picked Pac(extremely few many considered delusional idiots) thought it will be by a very close SD NO ONE thought it will be one-sided and end up by TKO. Even though Pac was one dimensional back then so I can't say it's my favorite "performance" win but just a great win in general. If I have to pick for performance then it's definitely the DLH fight, it was beyond shocking for me and many others(even liars that don't admit) to see Pac show that kind of movement, speed, power and defense at that weight category. Even in the lower weights I didn't think Pac could develop that kind of movement and defense, everyone thought he will have to stand toe to toe and exchange which will end up KO'd cold like 90% of the public picked and now shamelessly deny.
It was a great victory. First it was revenge and second it was Morales hitting the canvas, something none even dreamed of. Seeing Morales rocked numerous times, knocked down twice and stopped is what made that win great. Pacquiao's improvement in his fight plan, patience and cautious aggression made it even more great as people prepared to welcome their new big name in the sport. If you don't consider all of that great ALL accomplished in one great night then you can't be serious and must be driven by hate of recent talks which is also understandable but kind of childish in my opinion, as a man you should be able to push all these asides and force yourself to accept reality when it's extremely obvious and easily exposed like this case.
It's not exactly hard to K.O/Stoppage a boxer that had to dehydrate himself to make weight. Freddy Roach even put a weight penalty fine if Morales came in over 130, forcing Morales to make weight which he couldn't even do against Raheem 6 months prior to this fight. It's not really a outstanding win considering the circumstances Morales had to go through.