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You know, while we're all talking about Barrera, his career kind of reminds me of another great fighter of the lower weight classes, Humberto Gonzalez.
He had massive hype as a young up and coming title holder and was considered another great Chavez-like iron chinned, huge punching warrior that was unbeatable. He had had some big wins and was undefeated at 30-0 with about seven or so title defenses of his WBC light flyweight title and had beaten some legendary fighters like Jung-Koo Chang, stopping his long long reign, and other good fighters like the undefeated Francisco Tejedor. It was similar to Barrera's early career; undefeated, hugely hyped and popular, considered the next big thing and was also considered unbeatable, especially in a brawl. Good boxing skill, but mainly considered a power punching brawler.
Like Barrera's first terrible loss by KO to Jones, Gonzalez had a big title defense (in terms of popularity) against the Filipino Rolando Pascua, an unheralded fighter with a 25-5 record, but had the air of 'very live underdog' by those who trained him. Anyway, in an incredible brawl the supposedly un-KO-able Gonzalez was out-brawled and knocked out in six rounds.
Pascua was then knocked out by Melchor Cob Castro in his very next fight and first, and only, title defense. Also like Barrera he was suddenly considered shot already at 30-1, but he came back and beat the legendary Melchor in his very next title fight and also beat him in the rematch, in between having about five title defenses.
At the same time as all this was going on there was another fighter gaining huge interest called Michael Carbajal. Like Morales, he was also undefeated and considered the best fighter in the division and everyone wanted to see the two in a unification.
It was the first ever light-flyweight fight to head and PPV and was considered one of the biggest grudge matches and unification fights at the time between the two recognised best fighters. In the '93 FOTY Gonzalez battered Carbajal and knocked him down twice, once in the second and once in the fifth, and was well ahead when he was knocked out by a huge left hook with one second remaining in the seventh.
By this stage, Gonzalez had slowly transformed himself into a great boxer instead of straight up power brawler and in this fight it was in fact his boxing from the outside that was winning him the fight easily. Beforehand, it was thought that if it became an inside brawl that Carbajal would lose badly but he was actually winning the inside exchanges but losing the boxing fight on the outside.
Once again, like after the Pac fight when Barrera was considered shot again, Gonzalez was told he was done and no one gave him a hope of doing anything after that. But, the biggest rematch fight in lower weight history was set up which, for the first time ever, gained a million $ purse for the fighters. It was a great fight, though not living up to the first fight expectations and against the odds Gonzalez won the fight with his greater boxing skills. He unified the titles, went on to have some title defenses, beating some great fighters in the process such as Juan Domingo Cordoba and also won the great rubber match with Carbajal.
One great thing is that he retired after losing another fight of the year when he was beating the young champion Saman Sorjatorong in an incredible fight. Again, he was winning from the outside but letting his warrior instincts get to him and getting caught on the inside by the big punching Thai and was cut very badly over the eye and couldn't see anything and eventually got caught with a huge punch and knocked out. Interestingly though, he was still fighting very close to the best he had ever fought. He was very quick and sharp, powerful, still had good defense when he chose to and, again like Barrera, had completely changed his style into a very fine boxer/puncher. I think his transition was even better than Barrera's.
But, he retired on his own terms and surprisingly stayed retired even though he was still at, or very, very close to his peak and fighting brilliantly.
Some people might remember Sorjatorong as the guy that the great Ricardo Lopez destroyed in about two rounds before the Gonzalez fight, but he went on to become one of the greatest Thai fighters ever, even though most seem to have completely forgotten him. He had a very long title reign for about five years with ten or more title defenses, though he vacated one of his unification belts early on.
Anyway, Gonzalez' career always reminded me a bit of Barrera. Constantly thought shot and given no hope and yet always coming back defying the odds and just doing incredible things and beating many amazing fighters. Strangely, a lot of people have Carbajal ranked as the best 108 (light flyweight) fighter ever and yet when you look at who Gonzalez beat, his length of reign along with his own two of three victories over Carbajal it is very difficult to fathom why.
He had massive hype as a young up and coming title holder and was considered another great Chavez-like iron chinned, huge punching warrior that was unbeatable. He had had some big wins and was undefeated at 30-0 with about seven or so title defenses of his WBC light flyweight title and had beaten some legendary fighters like Jung-Koo Chang, stopping his long long reign, and other good fighters like the undefeated Francisco Tejedor. It was similar to Barrera's early career; undefeated, hugely hyped and popular, considered the next big thing and was also considered unbeatable, especially in a brawl. Good boxing skill, but mainly considered a power punching brawler.
Like Barrera's first terrible loss by KO to Jones, Gonzalez had a big title defense (in terms of popularity) against the Filipino Rolando Pascua, an unheralded fighter with a 25-5 record, but had the air of 'very live underdog' by those who trained him. Anyway, in an incredible brawl the supposedly un-KO-able Gonzalez was out-brawled and knocked out in six rounds.
Pascua was then knocked out by Melchor Cob Castro in his very next fight and first, and only, title defense. Also like Barrera he was suddenly considered shot already at 30-1, but he came back and beat the legendary Melchor in his very next title fight and also beat him in the rematch, in between having about five title defenses.
At the same time as all this was going on there was another fighter gaining huge interest called Michael Carbajal. Like Morales, he was also undefeated and considered the best fighter in the division and everyone wanted to see the two in a unification.
It was the first ever light-flyweight fight to head and PPV and was considered one of the biggest grudge matches and unification fights at the time between the two recognised best fighters. In the '93 FOTY Gonzalez battered Carbajal and knocked him down twice, once in the second and once in the fifth, and was well ahead when he was knocked out by a huge left hook with one second remaining in the seventh.
By this stage, Gonzalez had slowly transformed himself into a great boxer instead of straight up power brawler and in this fight it was in fact his boxing from the outside that was winning him the fight easily. Beforehand, it was thought that if it became an inside brawl that Carbajal would lose badly but he was actually winning the inside exchanges but losing the boxing fight on the outside.
Once again, like after the Pac fight when Barrera was considered shot again, Gonzalez was told he was done and no one gave him a hope of doing anything after that. But, the biggest rematch fight in lower weight history was set up which, for the first time ever, gained a million $ purse for the fighters. It was a great fight, though not living up to the first fight expectations and against the odds Gonzalez won the fight with his greater boxing skills. He unified the titles, went on to have some title defenses, beating some great fighters in the process such as Juan Domingo Cordoba and also won the great rubber match with Carbajal.
One great thing is that he retired after losing another fight of the year when he was beating the young champion Saman Sorjatorong in an incredible fight. Again, he was winning from the outside but letting his warrior instincts get to him and getting caught on the inside by the big punching Thai and was cut very badly over the eye and couldn't see anything and eventually got caught with a huge punch and knocked out. Interestingly though, he was still fighting very close to the best he had ever fought. He was very quick and sharp, powerful, still had good defense when he chose to and, again like Barrera, had completely changed his style into a very fine boxer/puncher. I think his transition was even better than Barrera's.
But, he retired on his own terms and surprisingly stayed retired even though he was still at, or very, very close to his peak and fighting brilliantly.
Some people might remember Sorjatorong as the guy that the great Ricardo Lopez destroyed in about two rounds before the Gonzalez fight, but he went on to become one of the greatest Thai fighters ever, even though most seem to have completely forgotten him. He had a very long title reign for about five years with ten or more title defenses, though he vacated one of his unification belts early on.
Anyway, Gonzalez' career always reminded me a bit of Barrera. Constantly thought shot and given no hope and yet always coming back defying the odds and just doing incredible things and beating many amazing fighters. Strangely, a lot of people have Carbajal ranked as the best 108 (light flyweight) fighter ever and yet when you look at who Gonzalez beat, his length of reign along with his own two of three victories over Carbajal it is very difficult to fathom why.
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