I expect everyone to say MAB, just because it's fashionable to fawn over Barrera and shit on Trinidad, but I've got Felix for both - greater and better. If Trinidad lost twice in his prime to a Junior Jones level guy, he would get crucified.
Definitely Barrera. The first Jones fight was a bad result but Jones was a good, albeit flawed fighter and Barrera arguably won the rematch. The Morales and Hamed wins surpass any of Tito's wins (I thought he lost the Oscar fight and Whitaker was done). Plus I just think Barrera was the better, more versatile fighter in all honesty.
Well, Trinidad wanted to cement the legitimacy of his win over Oscar - he wanted a rematch. Oscar didn't. Imagine that, the WINNING fighter being the one open for a rematch, and the loser not wanting one. Oscar knew he had fought as well as he could, and it still wasn't enough. He knew fully well that a non-weight drained Tito was gonna beat the fuck outta him. Whether you question the legitimacy of the DLH fight or not (I had it a draw) that win surpasses the Hamed win, as Oscar was ALWAYS on a much, much higher level than Naz. So, you have Morales, which looks favorable to Barrera, but I don't think outweighs the fact that Trinidad was a lot more dominant in his prime, and Morales/Hamed aside, Barrera's prime wasn't exactly built on beating murder's row. I find Barrera's "versatility" outside of the Hamed fight as pretty overrated. In fact, one could argue that dominating Whitaker in a way he had never been dominated before was more impressive than outboxing a guy with ZERO skill, who was past his physical prime like Naz was.
I had De La Hoya-Tito a draw, it was very close. I also only had Barrera winning one of the three Morales fights, and thought he clearly deserved to lose the Marquez fight, Pacquiao and Jones rematches. So greater to me is a toss up. I'd probably lean to Barrera. Morales, McKinney and Hamed are better than Vargas, Reid and Blocker. Definitely could go either way though, Tito's title run wasn't small. Tito was definitely better though. Much more talented, just as tough, and almost as skilled. He'd match up better against the best WWs ever, than Barrera would against the best featherweights.
Yes, exactly right for the last part. I see Tito as clearly better. And while hindsight is always cool, the fact is, these two guys had OVERLAPPING primes. If you said from 95-00 that Barrera was better than Trinidad, the entire boxing world would laugh at you. Tito was considered top 5 P4P every year - MAB was not.
I think Barrera has gotten more mileage out of the Naz win than he deserves. People act like Naz was at his best, when the simple eye test will tell you that Hamed's athleticism in the Barrera fight was nothing like it was 94-97. And it's pretty well known at this point that Hamed didn't take MAB seriously, and was slacking in training camp. You know, circa 2000, Hamed wasn't considered THAT much better than Vargas. I remember, and a lot of you guys remember too. Tito deserves credit that the Vargas fight was viewed as 50-50, and he destroyed Nando.
Dont you think Sweet Pea was a bit past his prime when he fought Trinidad considering on his very next and last fight he got koed by journeyman Bojorquez? To me a Prime Whittiker was around the time he drew with Chavez sr.(who many thought he beat). By the time he lost to De La Hoya and years later to Trinidad he was past it.
Naz was definitely NOT at his best for Barrera. He had a broken hand, didn't train properly and was lethargic from having to spend hours and hours before the weigh in shadow boxing in a sauna. Furthermore, I don't think it's a given Barrera beats Naz from the mid-nineties. He didn't dominate vs an older, poorly trained Naz (I had that 115-112 IIRC). Naz's power-punching, length and ridiculous speed could present Junior Jones-esque problems. I think comparing the Naz to Whitaker wins is good comparison. I'd give the Naz win the edge.
And Manny Pacquio had a shoulder injury vs Mayweather. But lets forget the Bojorquez fight. The question is. How impressive was Tito's victory vs Whittiker? Was it as impressive as Barrera beating a prime Morales? Lets be honest did Tito beat a prime Whittiker?
Even given hindsight, it's still a good victory. It's not like it was Holmes-Ali. Was it better than Barrera over Morales? No.
