Hey Greg, Great weekend of scraps. I was shocked to here all the crying about the decision. I am a huge fan of both of these guys and they showed me once again why. I had the decision ( an unpopular) 118-109, the other 3 fans i watched with had it 116-111 Marquez. The 2nd and 8th to MAB, for sure, with the 1st and 3rd being close(marquez on mine, barrera on theirs). I am sure this is reflected exactly on the judges scorecards. The 7th round Marco definitely floored him, this round was close to a 10-8 for marquez until Barrera caught him, and what he did when he was down is inexcusable and if he would have caught him flush, certainly would have been DQ'ed. The whole controversy is that HBO's (especially Manny) stooges seem to take sides and sticks to them(see Ghonzalez fighting brilliantly and cruising to victory when everyone with vision saw Vasquez about to stop a rapidly faded Johnny).  They can be biased(as we all can as passionate fans),because of personal relationships or
whatever, but when it obscures the facts so blatantly it is time to clean house. George and Roy weren't always right but they always called it as they were seeing it, not how they seen it should be. Fact is  rounds 4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12 take away the last 15 seconds and they weren't even close, fighting to steal rounds didn't work for his boss, and didn't work for Barrera. I don't need a contrived controversy to want to see these two go again, it was highly entertaining and would like to see if MAB could even the score, although i seen the same power outage morrales hit in the 12th round of his 1st pac fight in marco in the 7th and 11th. Could be the end of the road, especially how he talked afterwards. In Jay Nady's  Defence( and i dislike  Nady), the knockdown came so quick and at an unexpected point i never knew what happened until i saw the replay, it was nice of the crew to watch the replay 3 times and then tear him apart for the mistake, all the while defending Marco's free shot
with not 1 but 2 of Juan's mitts on the canvas. Laughable, as i recall they were shocked and dismayed when Perez DQ'ed Roy for beating Montel Griffen down when he was similarly prone, although Roy just kept punching, Marco waited and measured( just didn't land). Well i guess that mean streak is what helps  the greats, be great. keep well -elhubbo (Tom S)

Leon's Response: I also had Marquez winning the fight rather easily. Barrera was getting hit with everything in the book in round seven and I had it a 10-8 round until Barrera dropped him. Had Nady been on top of the situation he would have credited MAB with the knockdown and then DQ'd him. It was a dirty act of desperation by a great champion who was getting some serious hands put on him. Needless to say Pacquiao-Marquez II is a must. Haven't had the time to watch the fights on tape yet, I'll probably wait until Saturday night to catch the replay.


You know what Greg, BHop is something else.  Even if he doesn't win this fight with Winky, he's still going to be considered the better fighter to me.  Just based off his set-ups or intimidation factor that he uses.  It was funny when he said that Floyd took a page out of his book when he went at Oscar, and to tell the truth, he's right, Floyd did do that.  I mean Floyd often times does talk trash, but this time, it just seems like he went over the top with it.  Almost as bad as he did it with Corrales.  What I like about the way Bernard Hopkins does it is the style he uses.  He gives you a full cinematic view of how he sees you and what he's going to do.  I mean to say he's going Turtle Hunting is hilarious.  Then to say afterwards that the media would sip turtle soup at the post conference is even moreso.  Hopkins does this over and over
to his opponents.  He talked about Taylor's speech impediment at the second fight's press conference and how he didn't have much to say before they fought.  I can't remember what he said about Tarver, but I'm sure it was witty.  (Please remind me) Anyway, I have to say he definitely backs up his words and usually wins even if he already won the press conference.  Finally, his popularity definitely went up after the Taylor fights and to this day, I still question Taylor.  I feel like the first fight should've been a draw and the second one Hopkins won.  For his upcoming fight with Winky, I'm leaning towards him as well.  But only because Winky is moving up in weight.  Otherwise, I see the fight pretty even. BIG T/ BKYLN

Leon's Response: Floyd is doing a great job of selling the May 5 mega-fight. Boxingtalkers can get ready for another marathon of Mayweather chats in the comign months. Both of Hopkins fight with Taylor were close and could have gone either way, but I agree that Hopkins popularity has gone up due to many feeling he got jobbed. I don't think Hopkins trash talk is really going to bother Winky, it will just motivate him. Saw Winky in Vegas the other day and it was clear to me that he's not going to have any problem moving up to 170 pounds.


 
I think the judges of the Saturday's card were way off on the Hopkins and Forbes fight as well as Marquez versus Barrera.  Forbes clearly won that fight, although, a close but still should have been a unanimous decision.  Even if it were a close decision for Hopkins, I could see what they were looking at but to be a one-sided 118-100 is just ridiculous.  I know that Marquez hurt Barrera a few times but was getting beat to the punch the majority of the time.

Leon's Response: Forbes won the fight, period point blank. We now have a candidate for worst decision of the year. That doesn't make D-Hop any less of a fighter because Forbes is a former world champion and a seasoned professional, but in my opinion there must be a Hopkins-Forbes rematch before Hopkins fights for a title.

Good afternoon Greg. One way or another you are killing the competition. It’s no even fair man… Good job! Not a bad weekend in boxing, especially the MAB-JMM event. However I don’t get this nonsense about round 7. Yes, it was a text book definition of a knockdown, but it could have also been a DQ by default. Marco A. Barrera was lucky he didn’t get DQ ala Roy Jones vs. Montell Griffin, for hitting a clearly downed opponent; both his hands were on the canvas!!! In all fairness round 7 should have been 9-8 to Barrera. However it didn't make any difference in the outcome. Even if it would've been 10-8 (Barrera) the final scores would've been 114-113(twice) and 116-111 ALL TO MARQUEZ... A rematch is a MUST. Congrats to Juanma’!!!Papillon….

Leon's Response: What is competition? I thought you were making a lot of sense until you said a rematch is a must. Pacquiao-Marquez II is a must. If Arum and Golden Boy find it in their hearts to make that fight, maybe we'll see a fourth Barrera-Morales battle.

 

Congratulations Bro. Greg, on your wonderful, insightful and in-depth interview with B-Hop.I enjoyed it immensely By the way, what did you mean when you said  that Bernard understands the difference between BT and the internet?-Rod

Leon's Response: In my not so humble opinion, BoxingTalk is the front page of boxing. One things for sure, it's the ONLY site you know ALL of the top fighters are reading on a regular basis.


Whats up Greg? Hell of a fight this weekend what you think? Well I must say it was an action packed fight. I helped but noticed that there was an estimated 8,000 in attendance. Barrera under Golden Boy Promotions just hasnt seem to be a huge draw. Whats your take? He lost a huge MEXICAN fan base shortly after his insults of Morales ( calling him an Indian). I was a huge fan of the old quiet "Baby Faced Assassin" shortly after he defeated Hamed he began to be more arrogant with the the way he conducted interviews as well as presented himself. Sad for Barrera and "Shady" Nady, but what goes around, comes around as I recall on 6-22-02 there was a fight between Erik Morales and Barrera 2, during the 6-7th Rd. Morales landed a straght Right to Barrera's body which knockdown
Barrera and was Ruled a slip by referee Jay "Shady" Nady, which was a clean punch. The scores would end up being 116-112, 115-113, 115- 113, what would the fight have been like had they scored it a 10-8 for Morales and 10-8 for Barrera (vs Marquez)? Why is Jay Nady always in the middle of controversy? This weekends fight was so close but as far as the scoring goes with the wide margin, I can agree with those scores, maybe all the Rds. were close but Marquez probably had a little edge each Rd.   Lates Miguel Commerce CA

Leon's Response: I think it was an entertaining fight, but rather one-sided.A few close rounds, but JMM clearly had the better stuff last Saturday. The controversy is BS. Nady's two misses nullify each other. Had he been on the ball he would have ruled it a knockdown and then DQ'd Barrera for hitting JMM while he was down.

M,

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