Marco Antonio Barrera faced a host of boxing legends over the course of his illustrious career, but when the Mexican was quizzed on his toughest ever opposition, he had no doubts as to who held that title.
Barrera won his first 43 professional contests, getting his hands on the WBO super-bantamweight world title during that time, before consecutive defeats to Junior Jones cost him his crown and led to a brief retirement.
Yet, the ‘Baby-Faced Assassin’ quickly returned and regained the WBO strap, only losing it when attempting to unify against WBC champion Erik Morales, and then eventually moving up to featherweight.
A famous points win over ‘Prince’ Naseem Hamed on his debut at the weight kickstarted life at 126lbs in style, before avenging his defeat to Morales to get his hands on the WBC featherweight title.
After handing over the WBC belt, a defeat to Manny Pacquiao saw ‘Pac Man’ claim Barrera’s lineal title, and Barrera soon decided to campaign at super-featherweight, after getting back to winning ways against Paulie Ayala.
Once again, Barrera was able to overcome Morales to come out on top in their trilogy, which spanned across three weight-divisions, but it seemed as though Pacquiao had his number; after the Filipino icon defeated him for a second time in 2007.
Still, when speaking to The Ring, Barrera maintained that Morales was the toughest dance partner of his career, regardless of the fact that he had twice beaten ‘El Terrible’.
“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.”
Barrera hung up the gloves in 2011 with a record of 67-7 and was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame back in 2017.