Boxing’s Three Amigos: Erik Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera & Juan Manuel Marquez

By Stuart Young: Unquestionably the most revered boxing sons to come out of Mexico since the great Julio Cesar Chavez.

It seems with their ‘boxing lifespan’ either over or seemingly on the wane, now would be as good a time as any, to look back over their careers & try to determine which of this famous trio of fighters history will judge more favourably.

Undoubtedly, all 3 are nailed on first time ballot hall of famers – I don’t think anyone would deny them that, where they stand in relation to each other in boxing’s great hierarchy is what we shall try to focus on.

Erik Morales retired with a record of W48 L6 D0 (34 KO’s) – Morales managed to win multiple world titles in 3 different weight divisions.

Morales turned professional in March ’93 aged 16, but came to prominence when he stopped Daniel Zaragoza in 11 rounds to win the WBC super-bantamweight world title in ’97 announcing his arrival to all on the world stage, the young ‘gunslinger’ preceded to defend his title 8 times, claiming respected scalps such as those of Junior Jones, & teak-tough Irishman Wayne McCullough before entering in what would be his first superfight – a unification bout against fellow Mexican & WBO super-bantamweight champion Marco Antonio Barrera.

What followed was a bout that has entered into boxing folklore as both champions declared an all out ‘war’ on each other & gave those lucky enough to be in attendance the privilege of witnessing one of boxing’s greatest ever fights, voted ’2000 fight of the year’ by Ring Magazine the bout was controversially settled by a split decision win in favour of Morales, who had now managed to unify both the WBC & WBO belts, officially Barrera was the ‘loser’ in this bout, there is no doubt both fighters reputations & careers were enhanced by their epic battle.

Marco Antonio Barrera’s record stands at W65 L7 D0 (43 KO’s) – Barrera has so far managed to win multiple world titles in three different weight divisions.

Barrera’s career was unbelievably started even earlier than that of Morales’ he entered the paid ranks at just 15, & it can be argued that ‘The Baby Faced Assassin’ had the most impressive start of our 3 warriors to his profession career, winning his first 43 fights & collecting the WBO Super-bantamweight title by outpointing Daniel Jimenez. Barrera defended his belt 8 times, including a ‘war’ with Kennedy McKinney where both fighters were dropped before Barrera eventually prevailed, rallying to stop McKinney in a final round assault.

Barrera then preceded to lose & win back his title, back to back defeats to American challenger Junior Jones occurred (DSQ & PTS), before regaining the belt by stopping an overmatched Richie Wenton in four rounds in a fight for the now vacated title – Jones had lost the belt to McKinney who himself had vacated the title by moving up to the featherweight division.

Juan Manuel Marquez’s record stands at W50 L5 D1 (37 KO’s) – Marquez has so far managed to win multiple world titles in three different weight divisions.

Juan Manuel Marquez is from a family steeped in boxing tradition, his father boxed & so does his younger brother Rafael, so it’s no coincidence Juan was to venture into the ‘family business’.

A bit of a late bloomer when compared to his fellow countrymen, Marquez turned professional a few months short of his 20th birthday, Marquez was to lose his very first professional fight by DSQ, but wouldn’t lose another bout for the next 5 years, stringing together a run of 29 successive victories, which eventually led to him getting a shot at WBA featherweight champion Freddie Norwood, despite losing the fight by UD, Marquez’s ring exploits had earned him a reputation as a very dangerous opponent, a smart boxer / counter-puncher, many of the divisions top fighters – most noticeably Naseem Hamed, avoided Marquez due to the “high risk / low reward” type of fight which it presented.

Marquez rebounded with from his defeat to Norwood with victories over his next 11 opponents which cultivated in him getting his 2nd world title shot in 2003 against seasoned campaigner Manuel Medina. This time Marquez pressed the action right from the start & stopped Medina in the 7th round to claim his first world title & with it the IBF featherweight belt at the relatively old age, (for first time world title winners) of 29.

Fresh off his victory over Barrera in 2000, Morales stepped up from the super-bantamweight division to test the waters at featherweight, managing to keep his unbeaten run going whilst picking up a piece of the featherweight crown by outpointing Guty Espadas Jr to claim the WBC belt, he was now a two-weight world champion.

In the aftermath of his defeat to Morales, Barrera again fought for & won back his old WBO super-bantamweight title with a 1st round KO of Luiz Freitas, he defended the belt twice before ‘outgrowing’ the weight division & following Morales’ lead by himself moving north to the featherweight where he was to challenge the most dominant featherweight champion of his era – the ‘linear’ champion ‘Prince’ Naseem Hamed in ’01.

Going into the fight with Hamed, Barrera was a hefty underdog but he proceeded to dominate the ‘Prince’ teaching Hamed nothing short of a boxing lesson, bullying him most noticeably when deducted a point for slamming his head into a turnbuckle in the final round before winning a UD – Hamed would never recover from the defeat & retired after having one more bout aged 28.

Barrera meanwhile, was now the new ‘unofficial’ king of the featherweight division & a rematch with Morales, the newly crowned WBC champion was now a natural match-up.
Scheduled for the MGM Grand Las Vegas in June ’02, the bout was again a ‘fan friendly’ spectacle that went to the Judges scorecards, this time is was Barrera’s turn to claim his redemption, getting the nod off all 3 Judges to win by UD, claiming the WBC featherweight title & handing Morales his first professional defeat, whilst cementing Barrera’s claim as boxing’s premiere featherweight & ‘officially’ winning world titles in his second weight class.
Circumstances & boxing politics dictated Barrera was to give up his WBC title but he was still ‘unofficially’ universally regarded as the divisions number one fighter, a bona-fide P4P top 10 fighter & ‘Ring Magazine’ featherweight champion. Barrera defended the ‘belt’ two times, against Johnny Tapia & Kevin Kelley before fighting ‘Philipino Dynamo’ Manny Pacquiao.

Morales again fought for his old belt when Barrera vacated, winning on points against popular crowd pleaser Paulie Ayala, he defended the belt twice before moving up for the second time in his career to what would be his third weight category (super-featherweight) where he met old rival Guty Espadas Jr in a rematch for the WBC super-featherweight title. This time Morales wouldn’t need the Judges as he KO’d Espadas in the third round to become a three weight champion.

Morales then fought & won a unification battle with IBF super-featherweight champion Carlos Hernandez in July 04, winning by landslide UD.

After finally winning the IBF title against Medina in Feb ’03, Marquez was now beginning to get the accolades which his talent richly deserved, he defended his title before meeting WBA champion Derrick Gainer in a featherweight unification battle. Marquez would win by technical decision after seven rounds, being well ahead on all three Judges scorecards when the fight was stopped due to a cut sustained on Gainer by a unintentional head butt.

Meanwhile, in Nov 03 Barrera was busy defending his ‘Ring magazine title’ against little known challenger Manny Pacquiao, to many it seemed little more than a routine defence for the ‘red-hot’ favourite, despite the fact Pacquiao was a former flyweight & super-bantamweight world champion he was deemed out of his depth by many experts.
In what was undoubtedly the biggest shock at featherweight since Barrera himself had beaten Hamed, Pacquiao devastated Barrera, shocking the division by completely dominating him from the second round onwards becoming to first man to stop him (TKO 11) in 62 professional fights – a new breed of fighter was emerging to challenge the Mexican dominance.

First to threaten Pacquiao’s supremacy was double IBF & WBA featherweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez in a bout in May ’04, Pacquiao started the fight like a ‘street fighter’ trying to obliterate Marquez in a single round, he succeeded in flooring the Mexican 3 times, despite this initial setback, Marquez somehow managed to regain his composure & boxed beautifully for the rest of the fight catching Pacquiao with some exceptional counter punches while managing to box his way to what many thought was a points victory. After the final bell it was declared a draw with both fighters thinking they have done enough to win they both kept their respected ‘titles’ & high regard within the game – although there was definitely some unfinished business.

Barrera rebounded from the Pacquiao setback with a win over Paulie Ayala (TKO 10) then moved north to challenge new WBC super-featherweight champion Erik Morales in Nov ’04. In a ‘high energy bout’ that was voted ’2004 fight of the year’ by Ring Magazine, Barrera eked out a majority decision over his old foe to win the trilogy 2-1.

Morales then bravely decided to take on ‘Philipino Dynamo’ Manny Pacquiao in March ’05, Pacquiao was stepping up to the super-featherweight division & Morales managed to get one over his fellow countrymen Barrera & Marquez, by doing what neither could do, beating Pacquiao at his own game in an ‘action packed thriller’ that went the full championship distance, all three Judges scored the bout 115-113 in favour of Morales which gave him a close UD victory.

In hindsight, this would prove to be his Morales’ last great stand as he was to lose his next four bouts, stopped in both rematches with Pacquiao, in rounds ten & three respectively, he was now on a downward spiral that also resulted in him losing on points to Zahir Raheem & in an ill-fated attempt to become a four weight world champion, he was outpointed by WBC lightweight champion David Diaz before finally calling time on his ring career.

After winning the trilogy with Morales 2-1, Barrera defended his WBC super-featherweight title against Mzonke Fana (KO 2), collected the IBF belt with victory over Robbie Peden (UD) then had back to back victories over US Olympian Rocky Juarez (both PTS) before heading into a fight with Juan Manual Marquez in March ’07.

Marquez was to go on from his creditable draw with Pacquiao with victory in his next 2 fights before a debatable decision saw him lose a UD to Chris John in Indonesia, undeterred he returned to action with victories over Terdsak Jandaeng (TKO 7) & Jimrex Jaca (KO 9) before stepping up to super-featherweight & challenging Barrera for his WBC belt.

In a fight that went to the scorecards it was it was Marquez who looked the fresher & busier fighter, outfoxing Barrera in most rounds except for a brief moment when Barrera caught Marquez with a great counter-right at the end of round 7 which forced Marquez to ‘take a knee’, Barrera followed up by hitting Marquez when he was down – the referee (wrongly) ruled the knockdown a slip & deducted a point from Barrera for hitting Marquez when he was on the canvas, with the bell sounding shortly afterwards Barrera had little time to capitalise on his work. After the interval Marquez had regained his senses & took control of the fight to win by clear UD.

Barrera went on to challenge Pacquiao in a rematch that took place at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas in Oct 07. In a strange contest Barrera was happy to see out the full 12 rounds rather than going for the win & Pacquiao was more than content to pick up the rounds en route to wide UD victory – maybe Barrera was trying to banish some personal demons from their first bout or prove to himself he could go 12 with Pac-Man… who knows?

Barrera retired in the aftermath of the bout but was tempted out back by the thought of becoming the first Mexican to win world titles in four different weight divisions, making a comeback in the lightweight division, a few victories over a couple of ‘club level’ fighters did little to enhance his reputation or convince the public that he could be a force in this new weight class.

He was cleverly matched by Frank Warren with British Olympian & silver medallist Amir Khan, in a bout that would pit a young fighter up against an ‘old warhorse’ & once the first bell had rung it was clear for everyone to see that he now was a shell of his former self, slow & sluggish at the weight Barrera was cut horribly in the first round & wore a mask of blood reminiscent of his hero Julio Cesar Chavez in his battle with a young Oscar De La Hoya, it came as no surprise when the referee stopped the bout at the start of the 5th round on the advice of the ringside doctor – Barrera has not fought since, although no ‘official word’ on his retirement has yet to be announced.

Fresh from his victory over Barrera, Marquez defended his WBC super-featherweight title by outclassing Rocky Juarez (UD) before getting his rematch with Pacquiao in March ’08, in what would be another close fight that went to a split decision, Pacquiao was awarded the victory on the Judges scorecards by a solitary point, the deciding factor being when Pacquiao floored Marquez with a sharp left hand in the third round giving him a 10-8 round.

Following Pacquiao up to lightweight, ultimately looking for a third fight – Marquez was now fighting in his third weight class & first challenged ‘linear’ lightweight champion & former Olympic gold medallist Joel Cassamayor in Sep ’08. In a entertaining bout Marquez became the first man to stop ‘El Cepillo’ as the referee called a halt to the action in the 11th round, deeming Cassamayor unable to continue, he had now equalled the achievements of both Morales & Barrera by becoming a 3 weight world champion – a further victory in a ‘brawl’ with Juan Diaz (TKO 9) saw him clinch the WBO title & cement his status as ‘the man to beat’ in the lightweight division.

Next up, Marquez challenged the now former P4P king Floyd Mayweather in Sep ’09 who was making a comeback after a self imposed 18 month ‘retirement’, in a bout that took place at welterweight, Marquez moved up two weight divisions to take on the challenge of Mayweather, he was predictably out-fought & out-thought by the bigger, quicker Mayweather & was dropped in the second round en-route to a relatively easy points win for ‘Pretty Boy’.

To summarise, its fair to say these three warriors have dominated the super-bantamweight, featherweight & super-featherweight divisions from the mid 90′s until the middle of this decade, with all three winning world titles in three separate weight divisions keeping us fans thoroughly entertained.

Morales’ supporters will point to him being the innovator, keeping his unbeaten run going for nearly a decade (1993-2002), leading the march through the weight divisions & his superb victory over Pacquiao, the Barrera fans will argue that his dominant victory over Hamed & winning his ‘personal’ trilogy with Morales vindicates him being seen as the better fighter, whilst Marquez’s fans will no doubt point to his better longevity in the sport & his victory over Barrera & performances against current P4P king Manny Pacquiao as proof of his class.

Personally, I’d just tip my hat in Barrera’s direction – although if Marquez was to win his ‘proposed’ bout early next year with former light-welterweight champion Ricky Hatton & add the scalp of Manny Pacquiao to his record I’d seriously have to re-evaluate my stance, either way, I think we may have just witnessed a golden age of boxing around these lower weight classes & we only will appreciate these brilliant boxers true worth when they are all but footnotes in boxing’s great history.

Any questions e-mail Boxingchat121@hotmail.co.uk

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