Marco Antonio Barrera is often regarded as being one of the greatest Mexican fighters of the last three decades.
Known as ‘The Baby Faced Assassin’, Barrera’s career spanned from 1989 until 2011, where he won world titles across three weight classes.
His trilogy with fellow Mexican great Erik Morales remains one of the greatest in boxing history. They locked horns for the first time in 2000, with Morales dethroning Barrera of his WBO super-bantamweight title. Barrera avenged this in their rematch two years later, defeating Morales via unanimous decision to claim the WBC featherweight title.
Their third and final encounter took place in November 2004, and after another entertaining 12 rounds between the Mexican stars, it was Barrera who would prevail to capture the WBC super-featherweight title and put their historic rivalry to bed.
Despite sharing the ring with a number of generational greats, including Manny Pacquiao, Juan Manuel Márquez and Prince Naseem Hamed, ‘The Baby Faced Assassin’ revealed Morales as the best overall fighter he ever faced in a feature with The Ring Magazine.
“Morales is definitely the toughest opponent I have faced, because it almost seemed whenever I hit him it wouldn’t hurt him. And he’s a guy who would constantly give me pressure, and he hit really, really hard.”
Morales is unquestionably one of the most decorated Mexican fighter in the sport’s history, having won world titles in four weight classes during his career, becoming the first Mexican fighter to ever do so.
‘El Terrible’ defeated no less than 15 world champions throughout his tenure, sharing the ring with both Barrera and Pacquiao on three occasions each. He drew the curtain on his career in 2012, shortly after he was beaten by two-weight world champion Danny Garcia.
