(122) Barrera who fought Morales vs the Marquez who drew with Pacquiao. Little in it size wise when it comes to their in-ring weight, so don't sweat the difference there. How do you think the refined aggressive version of Barrera who combined the skills he later fine tuned with the relentlessness which got him to the super-bantam title does vs a pretty young, physically impressive Juan Manuel Marquez? The styles make for a great fight, one much better than their chess match in 2007. Also, were there any other matches post-Jones where Barrera was like this? That mix of hyper-aggression paired with high end skills? He seemed to shift to more of a boxer-puncher, content to use the jab and be more patient.
In the actual fight a past-prime Barrera had a shot at winning until for some reason decided to pull a Nigel Benn and hit Marquez while he was down and lost 2-3 points. So I would pick a prime Barrera to win a decision over Marquez
Yep. Also because Barrera was past his prime and everyone would have wanted to see it a few years earlier this fight is rarely talked about. A bit of a shame because it was actually quite good. Definitely one of those cases of better late than never.
Both of their styles would have matched up very well had they fought much earlier. When those 2 fought I thought MAB was having the edge slightly and I felt he was outboxing JMM at times. MAB screwed himself up by allowing himself to get a point deducted after dropping JMM and hitting him while he was down. The fight could have ended differently had he showed more control and the ref didn't ruin MAB's comeback. If we're talking about the same MAB that arguably beat Morales against the JMM that troubled Pac in the first fight then I'll favor the aggressive but still calculating MAB in a great fight. Always felt that MAB showed a bit more versatility.
That seventh round is a weird one. Could feasibly be scored 10-8 to Marquez, 10-9 to Marquez, 9-9 even, or 9-8 to Barrera. It's a round which I think highlights the judge's ability to override what the referee says in regards to a KD. If you felt Barrera scored a clean, fair KD, but the referee didn't, then a judge is within his right to call that round 10-8. Granted, most don't as their vision is often obscured and they're willing to go with the referee's word (rightly so IMO), but they're allowed. The referee's word isn't law when it comes to things like that. The judge's own discretion supersedes that. However, a referee's decision to deduct a point obviously can't be overruled by the judge. That's set in stone once it happens.
