Rank the 3 Great Mexican Featherweights

Ok, this current generation of fighters has featured 3 great Mexican featherweights:
Erik Morales
Marco Antonio Barrera
Juan Manuel Marquez

For the sake of this thread, let's assume that neither Barrera nor Morales ever fights again (which I hope is true for the sake of their health) and that Marquez will now face Pacquiao in a rematch later this year.

1. As of right this minute, how do you rank their careers?
2. How would Marquez's standing change if he wins or loses against Pacquiao?
3. If Morales and Marquez fought in their primes, who would have won?

1 Barrera
2 Morales
3 Jmm
no doubt about it for me
I really dont think JMM has done anywere near as much as the other 2
but Erik and Marco's order is up for debate :)

1. Erik
2. MAB
3. JMM

I personally would MUCH rather see JMM take on PAC then re-match MAB the fight was great and all but thats it I mean neither one ois getting any younger and IF JMM want's too continue shutting mouths up and provign people wrong then he & GBP shousl realize the time to strike is now whiel the iron is hot.....

If JMM can beat PAC and then possibly fight another fight like Soto, Guzman or one of the young stars like Valero, Arthur possibly Cook I think he could possibly jump IMO right next to MAB.....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CutMeMicK

If JMM can beat PAC .....

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Marquez would be the only one of the three that wasn't KO'd by Pac. And both Pac and Marquez have beat Barrera. Pac KO'd Morales twice and I'm sure that Marquez could do so...

If Marquez outoints Pac at this juncture it should put him ahead of Barrera and Morales.

1.Barrera

2.JMM

3.Morales

Quote:

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Originally Posted by althetruthhindley

1 Barrera
2 Morales
3 Jmm
no doubt about it for me
I really dont think JMM has done anywere near as much as the other 2
but Erik and Marco's order is up for debate :)

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Yup

1. Marco Antonio Barrera
2. Erik Morales
3. Juan Manuel Marquez

Quote:

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1. As of right this minute, how do you rank their careers?
2. How would Marquez's standing change if he wins or loses against Pacquiao?
3. If Morales and Marquez fought in their primes, who would have won?

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If Marquez beats Pac he'll be one of teh greats but his legacy will still be nowhere near his Mexican rivals based on that one win

As for Erik - Marquez . Right now Marquez , in their primes Erik.

1. A toss up between JMM and EM, If Morales can keep his composure and box from the outside and counterpunch instead of getting lured into a slugfest like what Marquez did to PAC it's definitely EM.
2. MAB, the beating MAB took from Junior Jones in two consecutive fights is just too humiliating for me to make him numero uno. I also think EM and JMM can beat the crap out of Hamed, so this victory of MAB is not that much of a feat IMO.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by althetruthhindley

1 Barrera
2 Morales
3 Jmm
no doubt about it for me
I really dont think JMM has done anywere near as much as the other 2
but Erik and Marco's order is up for debate :)

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yeah i agree. even though i've always thought that JMM could beat both barrera and morales he hasn't be in the kind of fights of those guys to put him ahead of them.

Hard to say. I think Marquez was the best of them in his prime, but the others have more depth to their resume.

As far as against elite comp, Marquez has the edge. He fought even up with Pac in a fight many think he won (including me), and once the dust settles he'll be seen as a clear winner over MAB.

Morales has a win over MAB that he probably shouldn't have but he also has a questionable loss to him. Either way he's 1-2. He's the only of the 3 to have a clear win over Pac, but he's 1-2 there also with 2 KO losses.

MAB has the 2 wins over Morales, and the win over Hamed which were great wins. But he got smoked by Pac in one-sided fashion. My big problem with MAB is people always hype him up as this impeccably great fighter, til he gets beaten up and then they act like nothing happened. He was the next big thing until Junior Jones KHTFO. He beats Hamed and he's back... Until Pac beat him like a prostitute. He beats a faded Morales to regain his stardom and then he struggles with Juarez and loses to Marquez. I don't think it's that he's inconsistent, he's just a half a level below where people seem to see him.

1)Marquez - 2-0 against elite fighters and undefeated overall on my card

2) Barrera - 3-3 against elite fighters. Seems to deal with contenders consistently for the most part.

3) Morales - 2-4 against elite fighters. Struggles alot with contenders.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SweetPea

Ok, this current generation of fighters has featured 3 great Mexican featherweights:
Erik Morales
Marco Antonio Barrera
Juan Manuel Marquez

For the sake of this thread, let's assume that neither Barrera nor Morales ever fights again (which I hope is true for the sake of their health) and that Marquez will now face Pacquiao in a rematch later this year.

1. As of right this minute, how do you rank their careers?
2. How would Marquez's standing change if he wins or loses against Pacquiao?
3. If Morales and Marquez fought in their primes, who would have won?

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Back in the day it’d be Julio Caesar Chavez,
Salva Sanchez, & Olivares.

Admittedly I have seen Salva only one time…but he had the goods from what I saw & read.


Today…in this order: Juan Manuel Marquez, Marco Antonio Barrera, & Morales.

Personally I think that Marquez is waaaaaaaaay too underappreciated for what he is. It has nothing to do with the Barrera win…I’ve said it for a long long time that he had it coming to him.

Glad he arrived in tow!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CutMeMicK

1. Erik
2. MAB
3. JMM

I personally would MUCH rather see JMM take on PAC then re-match MAB the fight was great and all but thats it I mean neither one ois getting any younger and IF JMM want's too continue shutting mouths up and provign people wrong then he & GBP shousl realize the time to strike is now whiel the iron is hot.....

If JMM can beat PAC and then possibly fight another fight like Soto, Guzman or one of the young stars like Valero, Arthur possibly Cook I think he could possibly jump IMO right next to MAB.....

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excellent post mate ! I agree.. like you said Barrera- JMM was a great match.. but one in which JMM won convincingly , no need to do it again. O0

Mab
Morales
JMM

Got to see a Pac JMM rematch ow!!

I haven't seen the Chris John JMM fight what happend? was JMM well beaten?

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Originally Posted by BIG H

Mab
Morales
JMM

Got to see a Pac JMM rematch ow!!

I haven't seen the Chris John JMM fight what happend? was JMM well beaten?

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I suggest you download it and score it yourself, I personally think JMM edged out the win. John was a very awkward opponent but JMM did enough to win it was as if JOhn was content to get by each round with just being in the fight..... We can all tell you JMM won but ultimately it's best if you watch it and score it yourself which I suggest.... It was nothing more then a hometown decision IMO.....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CutMeMicK

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BIG H

Mab
Morales
JMM

Got to see a Pac JMM rematch ow!!

I haven't seen the Chris John JMM fight what happend? was JMM well beaten?

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I suggest you download it and score it yourself, I personally think JMM edged out the win. John was a very awkward opponent but JMM did enough to win it was as if JOhn was content to get by each round with just being in the fight..... We can all tell you JMM won but ultimately it's best if you watch it and score it yourself which I suggest.... It was nothing more then a hometown decision IMO.....

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Cool - cheers fella - I will download it and have a look ;)

I've got it Barrera, Morales, Marquez.

Barrera's one bad performance was riddled with pre-fight distractions. Don't get me wrong I love Pac and right now put him in front of all of them. I just think that if you look at how Marquez and Morales fought him Barrera does much better in a rematch. At least he would have at the time IMawesomeO.

Morales was such a consumate boxer that he would be almost unbeatable in his prime. Unfortanately weight problems hampered his competitiveness even in the fights before he started losing regularly.

Marquez is one of the more technically skilled fighters you're going to see, but he simply hasn't accomplished as much as the others. Also he was very methodical and careful which hurts his popularity compared to the action fighters.

Those three are all greats but are in the last years (year?) of their historic runs. The junior featherweight division is now how the featherweight division was 4 years ago for Mexicans.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CutMeMicK

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BIG H

Mab
Morales
JMM

Got to see a Pac JMM rematch ow!!

I haven't seen the Chris John JMM fight what happend? was JMM well beaten?

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I suggest you download it and score it yourself, I personally think JMM edged out the win. John was a very awkward opponent but JMM did enough to win it was as if JOhn was content to get by each round with just being in the fight..... We can all tell you JMM won but ultimately it's best if you watch it and score it yourself which I suggest.... It was nothing more then a hometown decision IMO.....

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I have watched the fight and I believe Marquez really won. It was a convincing win.

1. Erik --- for being cool and clean fighter (aside from being really brave against any fighter). He has not ducked any fighter even if it means an end to his boxing career (e.g. vs Pacquaio)

2. MAB - for defeating Hamed
3. JMM - almost equal to Barrera but a little lower because he has yet to prove his skills against pound for pound fighters (not retirable p4p, e.g. MAB)

A win over PAcquaio will make him equal to BArrera.

for years i've thought that JMM could beat Barrera and moralas but JMM doesn't have the resume of the other two so i rank him under them.

1. MAB
2. Morales
3. Marquez

I don't understand how anyone puts Morales over MAB after losing the trilogy to him. He had shorter career and shorter time at the top as well. Marquez is less proven than either and has losses against lesser opposition. He's looked great recently (though I thought MAB edged it, even with the BS 7th round refereeing), but I think that's just because he peaked later in his career than the other two. Prime-for-prime, I'd line them up the way I have them above. (off-topic, I also definitely put R Marquez at least 2 or 3 spots ahead of JMM on the p4p list)

MAB, Morales, JMM for me.

I respect them all so much but this is my order personally. All amazing fighters. As supergenius said about NAZ, it was a fantastic win for Barrera and I just can't imagine EM or JMM winning like that.

I guess since I started this thread, I should have to list my answers too. :)

1.
As for ranking their careers, I go:
1a. Barrera
1b. Morales
3. Marquez

Maybe I'm taking the easy way out by putting Barrera and Morales in a tie, but that's the way I feel about it, I don't think you can really say that one was definitely better than other. I think they go into history as equals. I scored their trilogy at 1-1-1 (Draw in the first fight, Morales winning 2nd, Barrera winning 3rd).
When someone mentions Barrera, they're always going to mention Morales, and vice versa. And that's the way it should be.
If Barrera had convincely beaten Marquez, I would have had to put him as #1 all by himself, with Morales #2.
I have a lot of respect for Marquez, but he doesn't have the number of big wins that the other guys have. I know he was the victim of bad management decisions, but Morales and Barrera spent their entire careers fighting the best. You can't penalize Barrera and Morales because Marquez didn't get the big fights until now.

2. If Marquez beats Pacquiao, I'd have to consider moving him up the list, but he would have to absolutely destroy Manny. If he wins a very close decision, I would still rank him slightly below Morales and Barrera.

3. I think Morales would have beaten Marquez in their primes. Very very close fight, but I like Erik in that matchup. Shame that it never happened.

I think Prime 4 Prime, Morales and Barrera are absolutely unseperable.

I know we can look at trilogys but Barrera went 2-1 up on a slightly fadded force.


With Marquez its difficult, yes he is the fresher but that dosen't make him the better. I think a peak Morales would blast him, but a peak Barrera would probably fight the wrong fight. However Barrera as of now would only need to make a few adjustments to beat him in a reamtch (mainly doing more with the right hand).

And with The Mexicutioner thrown in the mix (as a common opponent), it makes things even more harder to decypher :-\