King Of All Tenors - he took the Prince's soulPrince's soul was already taken before that fight. From injuries. Common knowledge my friend.
ValeTudo 1 -Nas could never have realistically beaten Marco. He wad speed and power, but he lacked fundemental skills and discipline. I remember Hamed conducting training sessions ar 2 AM, partying at clubs during camp, openly saying he detested and rarely did road work. Nas knew after the Kelly fight he was getting hit too much.King Of All Tenors - he took the Prince's soulPrince's soul was already taken before that fight. From injuries. Common knowledge my friend.
His fundemental skills were so poor, training with arguably the best trainer ever, Emanuel Steward, made him worse, because the Price owed a lot of his success to natural ability, self belief, freakish power for a small man, and, of course, awkwardness. When Manny tried to fix him, he seemed lost. Barrera was as tough as nails. He went pro at 15, but he came from a wealthy family. He was going to retire early to attend law school. He was a throw back fighter.
boxing wiz -Do you know who his coach was when he transitioned from brawler to technician? I'd like to read up on him.Marco made one of the biggest transitions in styles that I ever seen made. The first half of his career he was the stereotypical Mexican brawler who came forward throwing hooks to the body and always looking for a brawl. He had an all time classic fight with Kennedy McKinney on HBO's Boxing After Dark. Marco was on roll until he ran into Junior Jones who basically had KO'd Barrera, but Marco's cornerman ran into the ring causing the ref to call a disqualification before Marco was stopped. The had an immediate rematch and Junior outboxed Marco winning a decision.
Marco took off almost a year after the decision loss. When he returned he was a very different fighter. Marco at first looked like he might be gunshy, but it became apparent that he was becoming a much more technical boxer who used a good jab and boxed really well. He showed off his technical abilities when he used fundamentals to clearly beat Prince Naseem Hamed in their huge matchup. The guy who started out as the brawler turned full technician. It was a insane change that probably extended his career by many years. Marco got the better of the three fights with Erik Morales which solidified his place in the boxing HOF.
His wars with El Terrible were as good as it gets in the long history of Mexican VS Mexican classics.
I miss watching those fights at my buddy's house with a group of friends that were fiercely divided between the two fighters. Yeah a couple of backyard drunken fist fights ensued amongst friends after the 2nd fight. Fair fights almost as entertaining as the ones in the ring, handshakes and hugs after.
Good Times.
elcornjr -boxing wiz -Do you know who his coach was when he transitioned from brawler to technician? I'd like to read up on him.Marco made one of the biggest transitions in styles that I ever seen made. The first half of his career he was the stereotypical Mexican brawler who came forward throwing hooks to the body and always looking for a brawl. He had an all time classic fight with Kennedy McKinney on HBO's Boxing After Dark. Marco was on roll until he ran into Junior Jones who basically had KO'd Barrera, but Marco's cornerman ran into the ring causing the ref to call a disqualification before Marco was stopped. The had an immediate rematch and Junior outboxed Marco winning a decision.
Marco took off almost a year after the decision loss. When he returned he was a very different fighter. Marco at first looked like he might be gunshy, but it became apparent that he was becoming a much more technical boxer who used a good jab and boxed really well. He showed off his technical abilities when he used fundamentals to clearly beat Prince Naseem Hamed in their huge matchup. The guy who started out as the brawler turned full technician. It was a insane change that probably extended his career by many years. Marco got the better of the three fights with Erik Morales which solidified his place in the boxing HOF.
Rudy Perez. He also trained Israel Vazquez and some other excellent Mexican fighters. He was a very good trainer.
PTM2020 -
His wars with El Terrible were as good as it gets in the long history of Mexican VS Mexican classics.
I miss watching those fights at my buddy's house with a group of friends that were fiercely divided between the two fighters. Yeah a couple of backyard drunken fist fights ensued amongst friends after the 2nd fight. Fair fights almost as entertaining as the ones in the ring, handshakes and hugs after.
Good Times.
I remember watching their first fight vividly. Some friends were throwing a party, but weren't going to watch the fight. I wanted to see the fight, so I stayed home and watched it alone, content to enjoy the fight and finally be able to hear the commentary. I was quite a boxing fan and a big fan of Barerra ever since his fight with Kennedy McKinney.
It wasn't supposed to be much of a fight. The thinking expressed by most pundits going in was that Barerra might make it exciting for a while, but Morales was on a roll and Barerra had dropped 2 fights to the seemingly washed up Junior Jones going in, so he'd be fodder for Morales on his way to bigger, prime time fights. The fight was on HBO boxing after Dark, if I remember correctly, which was not as big a slot as HBO Championshp Boxing. Of course this was before youtube etc, but I watched every boxing match and everything associated with boxing I could get my hands on. I'd seen many of the classic boxing fights that people still talked about already. I recorded every fight I could on VHS (even crummy ones) and I'd watch them over and over, trying to learn some tricks about how to get better myself as an amateur boxer. I'd seen a lot of fights. I was still at home then and going to college. My dad had long since given up caring about boxing so he chose to do something else, so I watched alone. I was completely blown away by the fight.
I ran upstairs after to excitedly tell my dad "that ranks up there with the greatest fights I've ever seen." He kind of scoffed and thought I was just overplaying it. I talked him into watching the fight right after on video. I think we watched that fight in it's entirety at least 3 times after that.
voted up brotha. Love HBO After Dark! Didn't tune in as much as you did but man I remember so many great fights from those days on there.
buddie -Thanks mate. I've used my VU today, otherwise I'd give it to you.elcornjr -boxing wiz -Do you know who his coach was when he transitioned from brawler to technician? I'd like to read up on him.Marco made one of the biggest transitions in styles that I ever seen made. The first half of his career he was the stereotypical Mexican brawler who came forward throwing hooks to the body and always looking for a brawl. He had an all time classic fight with Kennedy McKinney on HBO's Boxing After Dark. Marco was on roll until he ran into Junior Jones who basically had KO'd Barrera, but Marco's cornerman ran into the ring causing the ref to call a disqualification before Marco was stopped. The had an immediate rematch and Junior outboxed Marco winning a decision.
Marco took off almost a year after the decision loss. When he returned he was a very different fighter. Marco at first looked like he might be gunshy, but it became apparent that he was becoming a much more technical boxer who used a good jab and boxed really well. He showed off his technical abilities when he used fundamentals to clearly beat Prince Naseem Hamed in their huge matchup. The guy who started out as the brawler turned full technician. It was a insane change that probably extended his career by many years. Marco got the better of the three fights with Erik Morales which solidified his place in the boxing HOF.
Rudy Perez. He also trained Israel Vazquez and some other excellent Mexican fighters. He was a very good trainer.
prince fight is beast 
Great fighter, war El terrible too
Good thread. Thanks for the insight, input and stories gentlemen.
I competed as an amateur boxer in the late 90's, early 2000's. Morales was my hero and I got to meet him one time in Detroit about 15-16 years ago. He was so humble and friendly, I will never forget our meeting.
I went back and forth with Jack Black or Slack or whatever his name is on his piece he did on Naseem Hamed and got shitted on by the UG because he was or is a god around here. MAB, El Terrible Morales, JMM and many more Mexican greats are so underrated due to their humble nature. The type to beat and drop a king of his hill then get back to working hard with the rest of the people. No bragging, no threatening, just doing it.
The wars between Marco Antonio Barrera, Morales, Pacquiao, and Marquez are legitimately legendary.
*off
MisterDerp - prince fight is beastStill my favorite Boxing match till this day.
Went in a 3-1 underdog and outboxed, outclassed, and humiliated Naseem. He did to Naseem everything he was doing to his opponents inside the ring. Even when Prince Naseem tried to get one over on him with dirty tactics, MAB would react with even dirtier tactics.
1 year later he went to war with Erik Morales who was defending his WBC title. Beat Morales, and declined his WBC title, leaving it vacant for others to fight for.
That's a true champ right.
Later.
I love when buddie and boxing whiz get in these threads.
-D0DG3R D0GG13- -my man.MisterDerp - prince fight is beastStill my favorite Boxing match till this day.
Went in a 3-1 underdog and outboxed, outclassed, and humiliated Naseem. He did to Naseem everything he was doing to his opponents inside the ring. Even when Prince Naseem tried to get one over on him with dirty tactics, MAB would react with even dirtier tactics.
1 year later he went to war with Erik Morales who was defending his WBC title. Beat Morales, and declined his WBC title, leaving it vacant for others to fight for.
That's a true champ right.
Absolutely yes! He was robbed against Marquez though. So what if he gave him a little extra after he knocked him down lol. That loss was painful as a MAB fan.
Loved his fights with Morales but I was torn cuz I liked Morales too. Watching him dismantle Hamed was a joy to behold.