Saddoboxing.com Writers Break Down Barrera-Morales III.

We are fortunate enough to be able to look back through boxing history, study the careers, and marvel at the impact of the great Mexican fighters. Men such as Salvador Sanchez and Julio Cesar Chavez are but two of the many great champions

that make up the proud tradition of the Aztec Warrior. Whether many people realize it nor not, we are even luckier to be able to behold two Mexican legends still very much active in the fight game today. Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera are Mexican champions that have already sealed their place in boxing legend with their individual achievements not to mention the two stunning fights they engaged in together. In 2000, the two met in Las Vegas to contest the WBO/WBC unified super bantamweight championship and proceeded to write new pages in punishment before Morales left with a hotly disputed decision, so much so that in fact, Barrera was re-awarded his WBO title. With business unfinished and dislike growing between the two men, a rematch was scheduled for 2002. However, when it happened, the rematch saw a decision granted to Barrera and the opinion of fans swayed to Morales who was seen to have suffered his first defeat unnecessarily. Two years on, the rubber match will happen in an effort to clear up their outstanding business “once and for all.’

Read on for the saddoboxing.com team’s predictions for the final chapter of this epic trilogy.

Saddo: Move over Trinidad Vs Mayorga we could just have a new candidate for fight of the year with Barrera Vs Morales III. This matchup is really making my mouth water as history has shown that with trilogies the third fight is usually the best. Morales has the weight advantage and has grown quite well into it. In fact, if you look at that betting link at the top right-hand side of this page you’ll notice the odds are…

Morales -250
Barrera +200

And that is only because of the weight advantage to Morales, I’m actually going to take advantage of those odds as I feel Barrera can control the pace as he can box or fight at will. Make no mistake if this fight is a classic it’s because Barrera wants it to be. So I’m picking… Barrera by UD.

Jim Amato: I’m going to go with Morales. He is on the upswing while I feel Barrera is losing ground. Although Marco looked great beating Paulie Ayala, I think he still feels the effect of the beating he took from “Pac Man.’ Barrera has lost the steam that he had gathered after he whipped Hamed. Morales should put on the finishing touches. I’ll say Morales by a tenth round stoppage.

Greig Johnston: I see this fight as no more than redundancy money for MAB. It’s his first fight at 130, where Morales now feels comfortable and, though he beat Paulie Ayala last time out, I don’t know how well he’s psychologically recovered from the vicious beat-down “Pac-Man’ gave him. Strange things can happen when two Mexicans who hate each other fight, but I think Morales wins by a knockout in the tenth.

Perhaps the best fight of this card could be the WBC 122-pound title fight between Oscar Larios and Australia’s Nedal ‘Skinny’ Hussein. Both boys are on long winning streaks and both will be determined to keep it going. Again, I have a tendency to tip with my heart rather than head, so Skinny takes this one out by split decision after twelve.

Ben Lynch: I cannot wait to see this fight. It’s a grudge match. It’s the third fight in a trilogy that will go down in history like the Ward Vs Gatti trilogy. It’ll be explosive, however I can only see one winner, and that is Erik ‘El Terrible’ Morales. His last fight against Carlos ‘Famoso’ Hernandez was a titanic battle where Morales out boxed and out brawled a very tough opponent. I think the defeat to Manny Pacquiao took a lot out of Barrera and that was at featherweight. I can only see the agreed super featherweight limit benefiting Morales. It’ll be a great fight but I can see Morales stopping Barrera in the late
rounds.

Lee Bellfield: Can’t wait for this one. If it’s anything like the first two fights, we are in for a treat. The first two fights could have gone either way and in this fight I expect another tough close bout. On current form, Morales looks a good bet but don’t forget Barrera was a slight favorite in fight number two and was deemed a fortunate winner. The deciding factor I think in this bout will be the fact that Morales has fought his last few fights at super featherweight and Barrera is treading water. That being said its one of those fights that could still go either way and the form book goes out of the window. I’m tipping Morales to triumph by a close majority decision but I make this prediction still feeling uncertain about the outcome.

Curtis McCormick: I’m going with Morales on the strength of his seeming to do better at higher weights than Barrera. The first fight, which was at 122-pounds, favored Barrera. Two years later at 126, Morales seemed to have the edge. I can see this one, at 130, giving Morales the decisive edge. Also, I suspect that Barrera, a veteran of well over fifty fights, may no longer have “it” against top class feathers and super feathers, as evidenced by his disaster against Pacquiao. Barrera did do well against Paulie Ayala after the Pacquiao fight but that may have had as much to do with Ayala being a much smaller fighter with very little power as with the idea that Barrera is “back”. I expect Morales to go right at Barrera, who may no longer have the reflexes to box his way out of harms way as he did in the second match.

Jim Cawkwell: Barrera has been buried and resurrected so many times now that I feel another resurgence may be beyond even his indomitable will. A Morales win is really what is best for boxing because despite what he has achieved, he is still young enough and hungry enough and has the physical attributes to move up again and win a world title as a lightweight fighter. Barrera’s finest moments have come and gone and these fights with Morales have always been a kind of get out of jail free card for him whereas you sense that Morales has more to offer, even though, to my mind, he has proved to be the dominant fighter from super bantamweight to super featherweight over the last eight years. These fights are always greatly contested and I hope that the judges will get it right because I don’t think either of them will allow themselves to be stopped before the very end. I think that Morales’ added comfort at the weight, youth and experience, which must now be considered relatively close to Barrera’s weighs heavily in his favor. Morales will win another close decision in a great fight all the more exciting because there is so much at stake for both men.

James MacDonald: On current form, I feel Morales will have too much for Barrera over twelve rounds. Like the last two fights, it should be a very close fight; however, Barrera lost that aura of invincibility he had accrued over the last four years. Quite simply, what happened to Barrera would not happen to Morales even on his worst day, in my opinion. Morales is younger and less battle-weary than his foe, so I’m going to take Morales by unanimous decision in this one. I hope I’m wrong though.

Simon Harrison: This fight screams eighteen months too late to me. I hope it lives up to the hype, and is a great finale to an excellent trilogy, but I doubt it. Morales is just too big too strong and too good for this fight to rival the intensity of the first two bouts. As well as being physically bigger than their last meeting two years back, Morales has shown himself to have grown as a fighter,with the Hernandez fight probably being his finest performance yet. I know Barrera looked good against Ayala last time out, but maybe Ayala was not the fighter he once was, that’s what happens when you lose to Morales; Ayala was not alone; Espadas, McCullough and Jones were never quite the same after their clashes with Morales.

I am sure Barrera fans will cling to the hope, that like he did after his bouts with Jones, he will come back strong from his defeat, but I do not see it. My take; Barrera to be on the end of a painful one sided beating resulting and his corner retiring him some time in the second half of the fight; Morales in eight.

If you are a writer and would like to be a part of the saddoboxing.com team, contact Jim Cawkwell at jimcawkwell@yahoo.co.uk