Pacquiao vs. Barrera @ 126...

[Fox McCloud]

I can't believe this fight wasn't for an ABC title!

Manny won the Ring title, but do you know have many times Barrera beat a champion before he fought Manny?

Naseem Hamed was the WBO champion in the fight before he fought Barrera, but was stripped before the Barrera fight.
Erik Morales was the WBC champion, but Barrera didn't accept the belt.
Johnny Tapia had won the IBF title from Manuel Medina in his fight before the Barrera fight, but was stripped.

So really, Barrera was the lineal WBO, WBC and IBF champion when he lost to Manny Pacquiao.

I think someone is going to have a pretty hard argument saying that Manny wasn't a champion at 126 pounds.

[Mr. Ryan]

Not until late in Barrera's career was he concerned with the ABC belts and their curious mandatory challengers. Thats why his career is mostly devoid of Mzonke Fana's until the very end.

[Fox McCloud]

Not until late in Barrera's career was he concerned with the ABC belts and their curious mandatory challengers. Thats why his career is mostly devoid of Mzonke Fana's until the very end.

But he fought 2 champions who had just been stripped...

and then refused to accept the WBC belt, which is the strangest part of all IMO.

Does anyone know the details behind Barrera refusing to accept Morales's WBC belt?

[MANGLER]

Why people would count Pac's alphabet belts and not count his Ring belt in his career making win is odd as ****.

[Fox McCloud]

Why people would count Pac's alphabet belts and not count his Ring belt in his career making win is odd as ****.

Agreed for sure. Barrera was obviously the guy at 126 at the time.

The weirdest part... Pacquiao had the hotly contested fight with Marquez for both the IBF (again) and the WBA belts... so that completes the cycle of belts at 126.

IBF - Marquez/Tapia (through Barrera)
WBA - Marquez
WBC - Morales (through Barrera)
WBO - Hamed (through Barrera)

There just has to be a series of weird events to keep Pacquiao from having an ABC belt at 126. That's all I'm saying.

[DiegoFuego]

But he fought 2 champions who had just been stripped...

and then refused to accept the WBC belt, which is the strangest part of all IMO.

Does anyone know the details behind Barrera refusing to accept Morales's WBC belt?

He did accept it, he just got stripped for defending against Johnny Tapia rather than someone else. Morales fought Ayala for the vacated belt the week after Barrera beat Tapia.

It was MORALES who refused to accept Barrera's WBO belt after their first fight. It was Morales' way of saying the fight could have gone either way.

[Left Hook Tua]

But he fought 2 champions who had just been stripped...

and then refused to accept the WBC belt, which is the strangest part of all IMO.

Does anyone know the details behind Barrera refusing to accept Morales's WBC belt?

marco didn't want to pay sanctioning fees.

he was barrera! nobody gives a **** who the beltholders were. he was barrera and he gets to say what/where/when to fight.

manny felt the same way. he didn't want the wbc belts and he didn't want to pay the orgs but bob arum wanted him to go for belts and stuff.

[ferocity]

Barrera started i think it was at 115. He bombed threw his opponets. No organization or Champion wanted to give him a title shot so he moved up to 118 again he bombed through his opponets nobody gave him a title shot and the organizations didn't even wink at Barrera.

Then i think it was at 122 where the WBO finally gave Barrera his shot and again Barrera bombed through his opponets. And when the other Title Organizations started to rate Barrera and Barrera said no thank you. Which is why he refused the WBC, in the past even the WBC didn't want to give rank to Barrera.

Reason Morales gave back the WBO title is because he is a WBC Champion and the WBC represents a Mexican title and he didn't want the WBO plain and simple. IT isn't a major world title, it wasn't because Morales thought Barrera won, thats just ****en bull****!

Barrera later in his career accepted a recognized Title because he joined GBP and i have no doubt in my mind that Delahoya told him to accept a recognized Title.

[Ryn0]

But he fought 2 champions who had just been stripped...

and then refused to accept the WBC belt, which is the strangest part of all IMO.

Does anyone know the details behind Barrera refusing to accept Morales's WBC belt?

He has to pay the WBC to accept his belt

[Easy-E]

Manny was not champion at 126.
He did beat the man at that weight at that time, though, so credit for that.