LAS VEGAS -- They did it again.
Somehow Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales duplicated, and perhaps even surpassed, the action and drama of their all-time great first battle, which took place four years ago at 122 pounds.
Older, heavier and a lot richer, Barrera and Morales showed the world that they haven't lost any of the desire, skill or heart that made them champions and the pride of Mexico. They also showed that they haven't lost any love for each other, as they boxed and beat each other for 12 thrilling rounds in front of a frenzied standing room crowd at the MGM Grand's Garden Arena. Barrera, a 2-1 betting underdog, won a majority decision by one- and two-point margins on two of the judges scorecards to go 2-1 in the best boxing trilogy of this era.
Like the first fight and the rematch, which took place at featherweight in 2002, there were many close rounds, lots of back-and-forth action and plenty of differing opinions of who "really" won the fight.
Judges Jerry Roth and Larry O'Connell scored the bout for Barrera, who picked up the WBC 130-pound title with the victory, by scores of 115-113 and 115-114.
Judge Paul Smith had it even, 114-114.
Morales, as would be expected, believes he won the fight, and many observers would agree with the former three-division champion. It could have gone either way. Fans will argue who won the rubber match just as much as they did with the first two bouts. But the real question is how the heck can they keep going at it like this, every other year?
After all of the punishing 12-round battles that each man has put his body through over the last seven or eight years -- especially the toll their first two fights must have taken -- how in heaven's name could they put on another fight of the year?
One word can explain it: pride. Great fighters have great pride. You get the feeling that if Barrera and Morales live to be 99 and somehow wind up in the same retirement home that they would battle just as furiously as they did Saturday, canes and walkers flying as much as their fists, if they were to get into an argument over who really won each of their fights.
Barrera, now 59-4 (41), said he had more to prove to the boxing world than his rival coming into this fight. Last November, Barrera was brutally beaten over
11 rounds by Manny Pacquiao. Although he came back with a 10th-round stoppage of Paulie Ayala this summer, many fans and media members questioned if he still had the hunger to be an elite fighter and wondered if more than 60 pro bouts had finally taken a toll on his body.
"Before this fight, everyone said Marco Antonio Barrera is bad, Marco Antonio Barrera is lost,"
Barrera said in pretty decent English at the post-fight press conference. "Talk, talk, talk. I don't like talk. I show that I am OK in the ring with my fists."
We all should have known not to count Barrera out. He was counted out after losing back-to-back fights to Junior Jones back in '96 and '97. He proved in a controversial split-decision loss to Morales in their first fight, the fight of the year for 2000, that he was not done.
But some questioned how much that fight took out of Barrera, and he was made a 3-1 underdog when he faced featherweight champ Naseem Hamed in 2001. Again, Barrera showed that he was not finished by completely out-boxing the Prince.
After struggling with Guty Espadas and Injin Chi in title fights in 2001, Morales was considered to be a spent bullet going into the 2002 rematch with Barrera.
He proved that he still had a lot of fight left in him by taking it to Barrera in a close, controversial decision that didn't go his way. This year, Morales won two 130-pound titles by beating Jesus Chavez and Carlos Hernandez, a bold move that placed him among the top five fighters in the world, pound for pound -- an area that Barrera once occupied.
The fight Morales and Barrera put on Saturday night was pound-for-pound as good as Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier's "Thrilla in Manila." The 12th round was as furious as the 15th round between Larry Holmes and Ken Norton.
MaxBoxing's senior columnist Michael Katz, who was ringside for Norton-Holmes said that Morales-Barrera III "might be the best fight I've ever seen."
However, for a brief spell in the middle rounds it looked like it might be more like the subdued second fight than the explosive first bout.
After the first two rounds, which featured wonderful two-way action, the pace of the bout settled down into an intense tactical battle that Barrera appeared to dominate with his quicker hands and cleaner combination punching. In rounds three through six, it looked as though Barrera was beginning to put on one of his boxing clinics, although in truth, each stanza was close with both fighters exhibiting subtle defensive moves, good footwork and excellent timing.
However, Barrera had more "moments" than Morales did in these rounds, particularly with his jab and hook to the body, and he led by two points on two of the official judges' score cards and four points on the third judge's card after six rounds.
But just when it seemed that Barrera would take over, the Mexico City native took round seven off, which was all the opening his Tijuana-bred rival needed to get back into the fight. Morales landed a series of jarring right hands in round seven, sparking a late-rounds rally that put the "fight" back into the boxing match. Morales continued to tee off on Barrera with one-two combinations followed by lead right hands in rounds eight and nine, but Barrera never lost his composure and answered back as much as he could. The action in round nine was as good as it gets as both fighters landed uppercuts, hooks, right crosses and body shots at the same time during the in-fighting.
The final two rounds were classics. The heated in-fighting and furious exchanges didn't stop. Just as one fighter began to overwhelm the other fighter, the fighter taking the punishment roared back stronger than before. Back and forth and back and forth in front of a wild crowd of more than 11,000. It was too bad there had to be a loser.
"This is not the result I was looking for," Morales, now 47-2 (34), said at the post-fight press conference, "but I think it was a great fight for all the fans."
When asked if he was bitter about the decision, Morales replied: "Saying I was robbed is like crying to the public. I don't want to do that.
"I'm brave. I have pride."
Yes he does. So does Barrera. Both have as much as any of the all-time great fighters enshrined in the boxing hall of fame.
