Pure "BarreTa"

I was 13 years old when I found out that Marco Antonio Barrera was originally from Iztacalco, very close to where I grew up, it drove me crazy to think that one of the most iconic boxers had been a neighbor of mine.

Barrera was incredible, he had a unique temperament in the ring, he was violent, he could enrage in a few seconds and change the fight based on his fury and anger, plus he gave us important, exciting and very important fights.

It is impossible not to talk about Morales when mentioning Barrera, their epic rivalry forces them to be tied to each other, but Barrera did magnificent things as a boxer, in addition to dominating Morales in the ring he fought against tremendous boxers and always left a good taste in our mouths.

Marco Barrera became world champion at the age of 21, it seems that his destiny as a boxer was to become one of the best in the world, even with a severe head injury he was able to continue boxing thanks to the help of a specialized doctor, Barrera was not only a winner in the ring, he was also a winner in life.

He managed to be champion in 3 different divisions and faced the best of the best, he is considered one of the 4 greatest boxers in the history of Mexico, he gave us the greatest trilogy between Mexicans, I can put that trilogy on par with Rafa Marquez vs Israel Vazquez and I put it above them only because of the popularity of Barrera and Morales, if I sit down to watch fight by fight there are many arguments to put both fights as the greatest battles between Mexican boxers.

Marco fought Manny Pacquiao, Rocky Hernandez and Junior Jones twice, Jhony Tapia, Paulie Ayala, Juan Manuel Marquez, Kennedy McKinney and Naseem Hamed.

These names are just some of the most prominent names on Marco’s record, but let’s go back to history.

Within boxing history we must place some significant victories, Sanchez over Benitez, Chavez over Taylor and Marco Barrera over Naseem Hamed, Barrera came into the bout against Naseem Hamed as a complete catch, the dominance that Hamed showed over his opponents was impressive, everything pointed to Barrera just being another victim, the story was completely different.

Marco dominated Hamed from start to finish, he imposed his aggressive, strong and intelligent boxing, he was more boxer than “Prince” he gave him a boxing class and his temperament overcame a haughty Naseem Hamed, that’s how on July 4, 2001 Marco Antonio Barrera Tapia wrote his name in the history of Mexican boxing to a few years later at the end of his career enter the books of world boxing.