Marco Antonio Barrera vs. Erik Morales II

For Honor and Pride
DateJune 22, 2002
VenueMGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada, US
Title(s) on the lineWBC and vacant The Ring featherweight titles
Tale of the tape
Boxer Marco Antonio Barrera Erik Morales
Nickname The Baby Faced Assassin El Terrible
("The Terrible")
Hometown Mexico City, Mexico Tijuana, Mexico
Pre-fight record 54-3-0-1 (39 KO) 41-0 (28 KO)
Height 5 ft 7 in (170 cm) 5 ft 8 in (173 cm)
Weight 126 lb (57 kg) 126 lb (57 kg)
Style Orthodox Orthodox
Recognition The Ring No. 4 ranked pound-for-pound fighter
3-time super bantamweight champion
WBC featherweight champion
The Ring No. 10 ranked pound-for-pound fighter
2-division world champion
Result
Barrera wins via 12-round unanimous decision (116-112, 115-113, 115-113)

Marco Antonio Barrera vs. Erik Morales II, billed as For Honor and Pride, was a professional boxing match between then three-time super bantamweight and reigning lineal featherweight world champion Marco Antonio Barrera and WBC featherweight world champion Erik Morales. It took place on June 22, 2002, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Barrera won the contest by unanimous decision, with two judges scoring it 115-113 and the other scoring it 116-112 for Barrera.[1]

The fight is the second match in the highly regarded Barrera vs. Morales trilogy, with Morales winning the first fight. This is also regarded as the most technical fight out of the lot. Many people thought that Morales should have had the victory and was a very controversial decision, which set up Erik Morales vs. Marco Antonio Barrera III on November 27, 2004, which Barrera won by Majority decision

The fight was made a PPV due to the success of the previous fight and was televised through a pay-per-view produced by HBO. The fight gained 300,000 purchases.

Rather like the previous fight, critics have provided highly positive reviews from this fight. Morales was the underdog at bookmakers for this fight due to his previous loss of form and slack, even though he was still winning, after the first fight between these two in 2000.