Originally posted by Sid-Knee
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The "losses" to John and Norwood were highly controversial. Both highway robberies especially the John one. The Mayweather loss? Big deal. He moved up two weights on top of having just moving up two weights really fast. How would Barrera fare moving up to fight a guy of Mayweather's caliber under such circumstances? Bradley? Sure, he was 40 and all the way up at 147. Hardly hurts him. Barrera had two CLEAR losses to Junior Jones. One bad stoppage, the other by clear decision. He also lost to Marquez clearly and two very one-sided fights to Pacquaio. Khan? Meh. I barely hold that one against him but it's about as relevant as Mayweather-Marquez for example.
Marquez would never lose clearly to Pacquaio as based on facts and he would never lose clearly to a guy like Jones.
Barrera has the excellent Hamed win and the 2-1 series over Morales. I'm not sure that evens up the top of their resumes based on Marquez having the head-to-head winner and their respective results with Pacquaio. Marquez also had the excellent wins over Diaz (who was young, hungry & coming off a great win) and Casamayor (who was lineal, off a great win and in Marquez 1st fight at 135) I think they ***** the McKinney win for example.
The rest?
The Medina that Marquez defeated had comprehensively beaten Tapia (total robbery) and was a natural Featherweight who had enough in the tank to win another title right after Marquez. They both beat Agapito Sanchez and Robbie Peden but Marquez beat them worse and he beat them first. They both beat Juarez, but Marquez shut him out Barrera barely sc****d by in one fight and even in the second didn't dominate him as clearly as did Marquez.
Marquez was unified at two divisions (champion at 4), Barrera at one division (champ at 3). The Alvarado win is better than the Ayala one given Ayala was much smaller and then you've got top opponents like Salido and Gainer both of whom Marquez defeated with ease. You have to factor in when a fighter beats certain guys not just the name necessarily. Marquez was always matched with solid opponents and difficult styles throughout his whole career - Pinckney, Gervacaio, Jiminez, Wheeler, Kotey, Sanchez, Peden, Medina, Gainer, Salido, Polo (very underrated was robbed in a few title attempts should have entered as WBO champ after bogus draw in Scotland vs. Harrison), John, Terdsak etc; Just because they aren't huge names didn't mean they meant little.
On top of all of this Marquez was a better fighter in the ring. He had more skill and was better at adapting.
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