I've always thought that Marquez was really the best of the three great Mexican feathers, and I know I wasn't alone in that. But somehow, he never really had the distinguished career or notoriety that those other two had. He's never been embarassed in any loss the way the other two have, and he's had more consistent success against Pacman than the other two (certainly better than Barrera had)... but he hasn't been in as many big fights as the other two (and he's at least partly to blame for that), and his career lacks the kind of defining wins that Barrera had against Hamed or Morales, or Morales had in his 1st fight with Pacman. Even when he beat Barrera, his win somehow lacked the luster of a defining win because of the controversy around the scoring. His greatest achievement is that he twice fought Pacman (one of the top P4P fighters in the world today) on even terms... it's something that Barrera or Morales couldn't do, but how highly can you rate a fighter off of two NON-wins, no matter how great the opponent is? :dunno:
Hes definatly below Morales and Barrera, solely based on competition and longevity. Too bad JMM and EM never fought each other, that would have been an amazing fight.
You can't say he did better than Morales against Pac because Morales does have a definitive win even if he also has 2 definitive loses. At the least I'd say that's about even. Anyway. I think JMM legacy in no way scratches the surface of what MAB and Morales have done. He basically wasted his prime, and has almost no chance of catching those guys. He was just as good a fighter, if not better than they were. Unfortunetly he wasn't around when they were fighting each other and the guys in their weight classes while moving up together. Pity MAB and Morales hate each other, with what they've been through career wise, they should be close friends.
I always considered Marquez better than Morales and Barrera talent wise. He's had the perfect combination of boxer/puncher at a high level. However both MOrales and Barrera landed the better fights at different weight classes. I think for Marquez he is partly to blame for some decisions but he was also ducked at some point of his carreer. I remember a time when He was the IBF 126 champ and Morales was the WBC 126 champ at the same time. Both promoted by Arum and when asked about making that fight Arum didn't want to. He said that he would rather put them against other top guys because it was better for Top Rank. It's too bad because I always wanted to see that fight. I think Marquez always had the talent to beat those guys but his name was included late in the picture of the top guys at featherweight. However he and his brother Rafael are easly the best brothers duo in boxing history.
