Ok, haven't got time to catch up on the thread yet but I'm going to give my thoughts.
1. That was quite possibly the BEST fought fight I have ever seen. Not the greatest fight of all time, but that was the definition of the sweet science. Neither fighter made a single mistake. Honestly, I think both fighters fought at their absolute best last night and I know a lot of Barrera fans would detest to that but I'm a Barrera fan too and I think that was the same MAB in there that beat Naz and Morales the third time out. It was simply a work of art. Amazing boxing.
2. Marquez started slow again but once he started beating Barrera to the punch, and when he put the left hook in front of the right hand that's what paid off. The commentating team said it was because Barrera was slowing down but I think it was because, well Marquez' timing was getting better and the left hook to open things up really disrupted the timing of Barrera and he wasn't as able to come back with punches. The left hook of Marquez really did a lot for his fight.
3. The 7th round. Barrera started to get nailed with that left hook right hand combo and that was a bit troubling for me to watch because he was just being beat senseless for a good 2 and a half minutes BUT, Marquez made one of the only mistakes of the fight and got a little carried away and came way from the outside with the right hand. His feet were wide, Barrera stepped forward with a right of his own and dropped him. It was a punch very similar to the one that Carlos Baldomir hit Zab with in the 7th round of their fight. It was a knockdown no disputing that BUT. Now here's where a lot of people are going to disagree with me but I think that Nady dropped the ball on this one. Awesome ref but how long was Marquez in that awkward position without Nady stepping in? It was five seconds at least and Marquez was close to getting up. Barrera motioned to hit Marquez, he hesitated seemingly waiting for Nady to step in, he feinted pulled back again and still nothing from Nady until Barrera was moving forward already. Protect yourself at all times and Nady wasn't calling a knockdown. I didn't have that much of a problem with what Barrera did because of how awkward of a position Marquez was in and how Nady waited forever to step in. I thought he deserved a warning and obviously should have been credited with the knockdown.
4. I thought the fight was in the air going into the second round in terms of how the rounds were scored. The deduction threw it out of wack. But to be fair, I have only seen the fight once and after the 7th round my memory fuzzed up a bit and I couldn't remember how I had the fight scored before that. It differed from Letterman's almost every round though. I thought Marquez won the 1st and 3rd. I thought Barrera won a lot of the mid to late rounds. I thought that fight was as close as it gets and I really don't understand lopsided scorecards going Marquez' way. Barrera was the ring general, he had the better defense and the more effective punching with the exception of a few rounds. The last bit is to be debated but I counted 5 rounds that Barrera won on those grounds. I'm not saying the fight went one way or the other but that's how I saw it.
5. REMATCH!
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