Where does Marco Antonio Barrera-Erik Morales rank among this century’s greatest rivalries?

It may be hard to believe now, but in February 2000, when Marco Antonio Barrera had just turned 26 years old, conventional wisdom held that his best days were already behind him, and that he was perhaps just one loss — one expected loss, I should specify — from fading into “big-name opponent” status.

Mexican boxing’s heir apparent was 43-0 and just 22 years old when he ran into Junior Jones the first time and was 43-2 and 23 years old by the time he’d lost to him in their immediate rematch. After that, Barrera spent nearly three years professionally adrift. He took 10 months off. He fought seven times in two years, all against clubfighters and fringe contenders: 17-loss Angel Rosario, 12-loss Geronimo Cardoz, 12-loss Pedro Javier Torres, Richie Wenton, Paul Lloyd, Pastor Maurin, and Cesar Najera.

For all anyone knew, Barrera, a veteran already of 52 fights, was a spent force, and his bout on February 19, 2000 on HBO’s Boxing After Dark against undefeated replacement-heir-apparent Erik Morales was his cashout.

In actuality: not so much. What the world witnessed 25 years ago on Wednesday was a relaunch of future first-ballot hall of famer Barrera that makes it seem insane to recall that people were writing him off. What we witnessed was 2000’s fight of the year and the start of one of the greatest and fiercest rivalries in boxing history.

In celebration of the 25th anniversary of this classic fight, we will now attempt to rank the 10 greatest multi-fight rivalries of the 2000s. A couple of notes before we begin: a rivalry only needs to contain two fights to qualify, but trilogies are given preference over two-fight series, and the rare four-fight series have a baked-in edge over trilogies. (At least there are no 20-fight series like Jack Britton vs. Ted “Kid” Lewis this century to consider for inclusion.)

The quality of the fights is the main thing, of course, but bitter personal hatred can be something of a tie-breaking factor. And yes, that certainly works in favor of the Barrera-Morales rivalry.

Where will that one appear on the list? Let’s count ‘em down…

10. Brandon Rios-Mike Alvarado

This trilogy between face-first — and, before their series began, undefeated — warriors would be more fondly remembered if they’d stopped at two fights, as the third fight, in 2015, was a sad wipeout in Rios’ favor. But the first fight, won by Rios via seventh-round stoppage, was a classic, and was on track to be 2012’s fight of the year until Juan Manuel Marquez-Manny Pacquiao IV came along two months later. And the rematch in 2013 was just a half-notch down, with Alvarado making adjustments and doing enough disciplined boxing to even the score.

In case you’re wondering, the Antonio Tarver-Roy Jones series was the only other trilogy I gave serious consideration for the top 10 — consider it a respectable 11th-place finisher in the 2000s rivalry rankings. And consider Evander Holyfield-John Ruiz, Tyson Fury-Derek Chisora, and Pacquiao-Tim Bradley all somewhere inside the top 10,000 and proof that opponents can square off three times without that automatically conferring greatness (or even goodness) upon the rivalry.

9. Lennox Lewis-Hasim Rahman

I hinted above at the uphill battle for rivalries consisting of just two fights to make the list, and indeed — spoiler for the top eight — this is the only two-fight series that cracked the top 10. I gave varying degrees of consideration to Leo Santa Cruz-Abner Mares, Santa Cruz-Carl Frampton, Andre Ward-Sergey Kovalev, Floyd Mayweather-Marcos Maidana, Deontay Wilder-Luis Ortiz, Diego Corrales-Jose Luis Castillo, Carl Froch-George Groves, and Victor Ortiz-Andre Berto, but in the end, those all fell short.

Lewis-Rahman is an exception, though, because of the magnitude of the contests and the unforgettable impressions they left. In their April and November ’01 bouts, the lineal heavyweight championship of the world changed hands twice, one fight provided the upset of the year (and arguably of the century so far) and the other delivered the knockout of the year, and both ended with highlight clips worthy of inclusion on any modern boxing history reel. This rivalry lasted less than nine rounds total, but all it really needed was two right hands to earn a spot on this list.

8. Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez-Juan Francisco Estrada

On pure quality of the action over 36 rounds, Gonzalez-Estrada probably deserves to rank a few spots higher than this. But the fact is they fought at junior flyweight and junior bantamweight, divisions that tend not to acquire attention beyond the boxing hardcores, and so their fights are as limited in status as the competitors are in stature. And it doesn’t help that the decisions in the second and third fights were both mildly unsatisfying, with a case to be made that “Chocolatito” should be 3-0 versus Estrada and is instead officially 1-2.

Perhaps the most unique thing about this trilogy is the eight-and-a-half-year gap between their barnburner in 2012 and the rematch that finally arrived in 2021. (A more typical 21 months separated the second fight from the third.) Whatever the peculiarities, there was hardly a dull moment in any of the three fights. And there’s no guarantee the rivalry is over, as both future hall of famers remain active and the question of head-to-head superiority remains unsettled.

7. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez-Gennady “GGG” Golovkin

It’s hard to top these three fights for competitiveness: first a highly controversial draw, then a hotly disputed majority decision, and finally a close unanimous decision in a fight most expected going in to be one-sided. The tactical adjustments were fascinating, and the pendulum swings extraordinary — Alvarez coming on down the stretch of the first fight, Golovkin unexpectedly rallying in the later rounds of the rematch, which was 2018’s fight of the year, according to The Ring. 

The stakes were massive — the lineal middleweight title in the first two fights, the undisputed super-middleweight championship in the third, not to mention, in the first two fights at least, the legacies of both men. And there seemed a genuine animosity between “Canelo” and “GGG”, which never hurts when measuring the greatness of a series of in-ring duels.

6. Manny Pacquiao-Erik Morales

This trilogy gets overlooked sometimes because each man had another rivalry that topped it, but their three fights against each other in a 20-month span in 2005-06 were each thrilling and very much distinct from one another.

The first fight was perhaps the crowning achievement of Morales’ career, a hard-earned decision win — with that unforgettably ballsy southpaw switch in round 12 — in what turned out to be Pacquiao’s only official defeat between 2000 and 2011. The rematch brought to life the two-fisted version of “Pac Man” and involved him digging out of an early hole to score his revenge stoppage. And the rubber match offered pure fire for the eight minutes and 57 seconds that “El Terrible” lasted before deciding he’d had enough of Pacquiao.

5. Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder

The greatest heavyweight trilogy since Riddick Bowe-Holyfield a quarter-century prior began with somewhat modest expectations, as Fury was just a few months out of a lengthy retirement and Wilder was still somewhat unproven. All expectations were exceeded — by a controversial draw that featured an instantly iconic 12th-round knockdown, by a shockingly dominant rematch beatdown that seemed to cement Fury’s greatness, and by a wild five-knockdown finale that may well be the most spectacular heavyweight championship fight since… well, Bowe-Holyfield I.

If a rivalry can be measured by how much it took out of each fighter, then this one shoots to the top of the list. Wilder left most of himself in those Las Vegas rings that hosted the second and third bouts, and Fury hasn’t quite been the same force either since repeatedly tasting Wilder’s power.

4. Arturo Gatti-Micky Ward

Personal animosity is preferred in boxing rivalries, but not required, as Gatti and Ward, who respected each other from the start and became best friends by the end, illustrated. The two most entertaining action heroes of their generation happened to contend in the same weight class in 2002, so they signed to fight each other, and before you knew it, they’d done it three times in 385 days, authoring both the ’02 and ’03 fight of the year and a lopsided-but-nevertheless-dramatic bout in between.

In terms of importance, the Gatti-Ward fights, each of them 10-rounders, can’t compete with anything on this list except for maybe Rios-Alvarado. The same goes for skill level. But for sheer thrills, these 30 rounds stand up against the best 30 from any other series this century. And no great rivalry of the 2000s produced a better three minutes than round nine at Mohegan Sun on May 18, 2002.

3. Marco Antonio Barrera-Erik Morales

You can debate all day and night which was better between Barrera-Morales and Gatti-Ward, both of which provided the fight of the year twice with a slight dip to a more tactical contest in between. So in the case of a close call, the edge has to go to the true grudge series – the one in which the fighters nearly foamed at the mouth with disdain for one another.

It does diminish this trilogy slightly that many fans feel the judges got each of the first two fights wrong (officially giving the first to Morales and the second to Barrera), and there are some observers — like me — who feel Barrera won all three fights, which chips away at any argument that they’d each met their match in each other. Still, stylistically, you’ll rarely see two warriors more perfectly paired. And you may never again see two fighters spend 36 rounds wanting so badly to rip each other’s heads off.

2. Israel Vazquez-Rafael Marquez

If I could bifurcate my brain, Severance style, one task I’d definitely assign to my “innie” would have been watching the fourth fight between Vazquez and Marquez, on May 22, 2010. My “outie” would love to be blissfully unaware that Marquez’s KO 3 over a one-eyed Vazquez ever happened.

Of course, it did happen, but this is a rivalry worthy of placement among the very best ever purely on the strength of the first three wars. They topped Gatti and Ward’s turnaround time by swapping leather three times in 364 days, giving fans the runner-up for 2007 fight of the year (the first fight, won by Marquez after seven rounds), the winner of 2007 fight of the year (the second fight, won by Vazquez in six rounds), and the clear choice for 2008 fight of the year (the third fight, in which Vazquez scored a last-second knockdown to eke out a split decision). The fourth fight broke the chain of each meeting being better than the last. But that’s OK. You can erase the fourth fight from your memory and still be left with the best first three fights any opponents this century shared.

1. Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez

This rivalry had everything — including a fourth fight you very much do not want to pretend never happened.

Maybe it was never quite personal between Pacquiao and Marquez the way it was between Barrera and Morales, but it did gradually get more and more personal between Marquez and the judges. The first fight, in 2004, involved Pacquiao flooring Marquez three times in the opening round, setting up a stirring comeback for the Mexican that ended in a split draw. The 2008 rematch was an even more violent fight than the first one and again could have gone either way — but went the way of the Filipino, by split decision. They tried again in 2011, with Pacquiao by this time one of the two biggest stars in the sport and a comfortable betting favorite, and Marquez outboxed him in their least action-packed meeting only to lose a demoralizing majority decision.

So in 2012, some eight-and-a-half years after their first fight, they did it one more time — and Marquez finally got his win in the best fight of the series and what most observers consider the greatest boxing battle of the 2010s. Who won the rivalry? Well, Pacquiao finished up 2-1-1. But he also finished face-down on the canvas with Roy Jones yelling: “He’s not getting up, Jim!”

That makes this a boxing feud that fans can continue to argue about more than 20 years after it began. And it doesn’t leave much room for argument over what is boxing’s greatest rivalry of the 2000s. Barrera-Morales got the century started. Pacquiao-Marquez took it one step, and one fight, beyond.

Eric Raskin is a veteran boxing journalist with more than 25 years of experience covering the sport for such outlets as BoxingScene, ESPN, Grantland, Playboy, and The Ring (where he served as managing editor for seven years). He also co-hosted The HBO Boxing Podcast, Showtime Boxing with Raskin & Mulvaney, The Interim Champion Boxing Podcast with Raskin & Mulvaney, and Ring Theory. He has won three first-place writing awards from the BWAA, for his work with The Ring, Grantland, and HBO. Outside boxing, he is the senior editor of CasinoReports and the author of 2014’s The Moneymaker Effect. He can be reached on X, BlueSky, or LinkedIn, or via email at RaskinBoxing@yahoo.com.