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First and foremost, I want to give props to the two fighters.
Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales have more balls than any other pair of fighters I have ever seen face each other.
Not only that, but they are both masters of all trades. They both have insane technical boxing skills. Great jabs, good counterpunching ability. They could also get in there and fight, really fight. They could hurt their opponent, badly in a variety of ways.
The thing that made this trilogy as great as it was is that each fight was completely different in every aspect, except for how highly entertaining and exciting they were.
The first fight was an all-out brawl. Both fighters fought as though they had nothing to lose, as if they were both fighting the 12th round after losing the first 11. They both fought every round that way. Even so, they both showed how GOOD they were at it. They were able to land bombs on one another, and they both made it all the way through 12 rounds. A pretty controversial decision went to the guy who had most of the momentum coming into the fight.
The second fight was an aggressor vs. counterpuncher fight. For the most part of the early rounds, Barrera played the role of the boxing and moving counterpuncher against the technical aggressor in Morales. Morales won a lot of the rounds, and Barrera decided that maybe he should start coming forward and fighting as the aggressor. After a couple rounds of two aggressors fighting a war, Morales became the counterpuncher who was moving and Barrera became the aggressor who fought with technique. Once again, a very controversial decision went to the guy who had most of the momentum coming into the fight. That evened the score at one a piece. One each, even though most people believed they were given to them in the wrong fights. This fight easily should have gotten FOTY had Micky Ward and Arturo Gatti made an agreement before their first fight not to excercise a single bit of defense for all ten rounds.
The third fight was high-speed technical chess in the ring, but even fighting this way, Barrera and Morales couldn't figure out a way to make the fight boring. They both stood toe-to-toe, but kept their composure and fought a ridiculously skillful fight. It is a testament to their offensive capabilities that the fight was so entertaining and a testament to their defensive capabilities that neither fighter got stopped.
This trilogy was absolutely incredible. Both guys showed insane amounts of heart, insane chins, an insane amount of skill, an insane amount of determination.
Although I haven't seen every trilogy in boxing, this one is far and away the best I have ever seen, beating out the likes of Tarver-Jones, Pacquiao-Morales, Bowe-Holyfield, Gatti-Ward, etc.
I feel honored that I was able to witness what these two men did in the ring for 36 rounds.
Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales have more balls than any other pair of fighters I have ever seen face each other.
Not only that, but they are both masters of all trades. They both have insane technical boxing skills. Great jabs, good counterpunching ability. They could also get in there and fight, really fight. They could hurt their opponent, badly in a variety of ways.
The thing that made this trilogy as great as it was is that each fight was completely different in every aspect, except for how highly entertaining and exciting they were.
The first fight was an all-out brawl. Both fighters fought as though they had nothing to lose, as if they were both fighting the 12th round after losing the first 11. They both fought every round that way. Even so, they both showed how GOOD they were at it. They were able to land bombs on one another, and they both made it all the way through 12 rounds. A pretty controversial decision went to the guy who had most of the momentum coming into the fight.
The second fight was an aggressor vs. counterpuncher fight. For the most part of the early rounds, Barrera played the role of the boxing and moving counterpuncher against the technical aggressor in Morales. Morales won a lot of the rounds, and Barrera decided that maybe he should start coming forward and fighting as the aggressor. After a couple rounds of two aggressors fighting a war, Morales became the counterpuncher who was moving and Barrera became the aggressor who fought with technique. Once again, a very controversial decision went to the guy who had most of the momentum coming into the fight. That evened the score at one a piece. One each, even though most people believed they were given to them in the wrong fights. This fight easily should have gotten FOTY had Micky Ward and Arturo Gatti made an agreement before their first fight not to excercise a single bit of defense for all ten rounds.
The third fight was high-speed technical chess in the ring, but even fighting this way, Barrera and Morales couldn't figure out a way to make the fight boring. They both stood toe-to-toe, but kept their composure and fought a ridiculously skillful fight. It is a testament to their offensive capabilities that the fight was so entertaining and a testament to their defensive capabilities that neither fighter got stopped.
This trilogy was absolutely incredible. Both guys showed insane amounts of heart, insane chins, an insane amount of skill, an insane amount of determination.
Although I haven't seen every trilogy in boxing, this one is far and away the best I have ever seen, beating out the likes of Tarver-Jones, Pacquiao-Morales, Bowe-Holyfield, Gatti-Ward, etc.
I feel honored that I was able to witness what these two men did in the ring for 36 rounds.
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