18 years ago today: Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales fight the first of their three great wars

18 years ago today: Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales fight the first of their three great wars

Las Vegas, February 19, 2000. Mexican warriors Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales collided for the first of three epic ring wars. Morales at the time was the new star of the 122 pound weight class and he was undefeated. He was the favorite in the match-up with Barrera for a number of reasons: one of these being the fact that Barrera has twice been beaten, by Junior Jones; who has actually stopped Barrera in their first fight. These defeats remained vivid in the minds of fight fans, and Morales of Tijuana was expected to dispatch his rival who hailed from Mexico City.

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Marco Antonio Barrera: Heading to The Hall!

Marco Antonio Barrera: Heading to The Hall!

One of Mexico’s finest, smartest and most resilient fighters, the great Marco Antonio Barrera will be inducted into The Hall of Fame in Canastota next week (along with, for one other true great, Evander Holyfield). Barrera thrilled millions of fans a number of times, his incredible fights lighting up the lower weight classes in a huge way.

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Holyfield, Barrera, Tapia, Jimmy Lennon Jr. head Boxing Hall of Fame class

Holyfield, Barrera, Tapia, Jimmy Lennon Jr. head Boxing Hall of Fame class

The International Boxing Hall of Fame and Museum announced today the members of the Class of 2017. Inductees include three Modern category boxers who all enter the Hall in their first year of eligibility; Mexico’s three-division champion “The Baby Faced Assassin” Marco Antonio Barrera,undisputed cruiserweight and heavyweight champion Evander “The Real Deal” Holyfield and three-division champion Johnny “Mi Vida Loca” Tapia (posthumous). Non-participants and observers to be inducted include Australian trainer Johnny Lewis, veteran judge Jerry Roth, journalist / broadcaster Steve Farhood and broadcaster Barry Tompkins.

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Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales, once bitter ring enemies, make peace with one another

Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales, once bitter ring enemies, make peace with one another

In the 2000s, they engaged in one of the most fierce, genuinely hate-filled rivalries in lower weight boxing history. Super-bantamweights/ featherweights /super-featherweights Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales went to war three times – the first battle, from February of 2000 being recognised as one of the greatest fights in modern day boxing history – and they came to blows outside of the ring also. Simply put, these two did not like each other.

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Video: A look back at Erik Morales vs Marco Antonio Barrera I

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Mexican legends Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera both participated in one of the most memorable trilogies in boxing history, where each man put it all on the line while exhibiting incredible heart, determination, courage, and elite boxing talent. But before these two had even had their first bout against each other, an out of the ring rivalry had already been brewing where each man jockeyed for the coveted position of Mexico’s top pugilist.

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Mexican legend Marco Antonio Barrera reveals how he could have fought Oscar Larios instead of Manny Pacquiao in 2003

It was at the expense of a fighter who had already achieved greatness that Manny Pacquiao first began to do the same. Back in November of 2003, Pacquiao, still somewhat unknown on the word stage despite having won world titles in two weight classes, challenged Mexican star Marco Antonio Barrera (in a non-title fight) – what followed was a brutal and one-sided fight.

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Barrera-Hamed: The fight that closed the show for “The Prince”

naseem553Back in April of 2001, “Prince,” Naseem Hamed, then sporting a perfect 35-0 record, faced “The Baby Faced Assassin,” Marco Antonio Barrera, then holding a 52-3 pro ledger in one of the biggest featherweight fights in recent history. What took place in the ring proved memorable.

The showdown, at The MGM Grand in Las Vegas, was widely expected to provide another exciting knockout night for “Naz” – instead we saw a would-be great humbled almost to the point of retirement.

Who can forget the way Hamed, by now trained by the great Emanuel Steward, took so long in coming out of his dressing room for battle? A good fifteen or twenty minutes passed before Barrera, who had made his way to the ring with no fuss at all, was joined by the U.K superstar who was attempting to gain similar status in America. On the way to the ring, carried in as he was by a huge, sort of hoop/swing that held him aloft, Hamed was pelted by unimpressed fans, who threw beer over the deeply religious, non-drinking Muslim. The irony was not lost!

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All Time Historical Survey Series Recap – The Original 8 Weight Classes & P4P

All Time Historical Survey Series Recap – The Original 8 Weight Classes & P4P

by Geoffrey Ciani – Over the course of a sixteen month period beginning in June 2009, I conducted a series of surveys that all began with a very simple question: Who are the ten best heavyweights of all time? While contemplating my own list of top heavyweight pugilists, I decided gathering the input of others might help display a more accurate portrayal of what a ‘true’ top 10 list should look like. Now of course this is not an exact science by any means. In fact, quite the opposite, it is an extremely subjective topic that is often skewed by personal bias, differences of opinion, individual tastes and preferences, and most importantly the absence of a universally agreed upon criteria with which to judge past fighters. Even with these inherent obstacles playing their natural role, however, we can still establish some degree of consensus.

The guidelines were simple. I had every person who voluntarily participated in each survey provide me with a chronological list of who they considered to be the ten best (heavyweights, middleweights, etc) in boxing history. Ties were not permitted, just a straight-forward list from one to ten. I then used a weighted-points system to assign values to fighters based on where they appeared on each individual’s list. First place votes received 25 points. Second place votes were worth 15 points, third place votes were 12, and fourth and fifth place votes were worth 10 and 8 points respectively. After that, the point differential was constant, with sixth place votes getting 5 points, seventh place votes getting 4, eighth getting 3, ninth place 2, and tenth place 1.

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