What were the reasons why Erik Morales and JMM never faced each other? I feel like that's a fight that should of happened
here is my theory...Barrera and Morales we widely regarded as two of the best Mexican fighters in history and were living legends almost before people really knew who JMM was. They were making so much money and at the time, Marquez was FAR too dangerous to face either of them at the time because they had WAY bigger opportunities and easier fights. Beristain has always been a shrewd manager and the fact is, one good win can make your career and one bad loss can break it.
JMM was very lucky he got his opportunity when he did. Otherwise he wouldve had to wait til Barrera an Morales retired. At the time when Barrera and Morales were on top....there were some purists that said JMM was better than both. The problem was the general public didnt know who he was.
HBO tried to build him into a marketable opponent and started first by trying to lift the title from Freddie Norwood. JMM lost that fight and went back into obscurity. HBO and the rest of the hype machine wanted everyone to believe JMM won that fight but a lot of purists didnt feel that way. I for one felt that Norwood made JMM look really stupid with his defensive moves. That fight was kinda like Rigo vs Donaire, except Marquez did much much better than Donaire. He still wasnt able to bother Norwood, who stunk the joint out much worse that Rigo did. (for those who thought Rigo was less than scintillating)
For the next 2 years Marquez didnt really do anything of note. He didnt start getting into the title picture until he beat Robbie Peden...and subsequently Medina for the IBF belt. He was lucky enough to get a unification fight with Derrick Gainer but that fight was soooo bad, nobody really wanted to see either of them again. Fortunately, he looked like a soft touch for the Pac camp and he had angled himself for a shot because he was a unified champ.
Fast forward a bit...Pac had just beat a past his prime Barrera and needed an opponent. Meanwhile Morales was using his name recognition and the fact that he was clearly the best Mexican fighter in the game at that time to pick up titles one after the other. He won the WBC from Jesus Chavez and in the next fight he won the IBF from Carlos Hernandez. Meanwhile JMM had lost to Pac. There was a lucrative grudgematch on the table for Morales to face the seemingly washed up Barrera, so that fight made more sense than to take on Pac and certainly to take on JMM.
What Morales figured was, he'd beat Barrera and go on to Pac. Barrera beat him though....and sense Barrera performed so terrible against Pac, then Pac team chose Morales. Once again, leaving JMM out in the cold. In the rematch, Pac finished Morales as a top fighter.
That was the long version....
The short version is....they never fought due to timing. Marquez' ball didnt start rolling until a few years after Barrera and Morales were two of the top boxers in the game. This was due to bad management and promotion. Barrera and Morales never needed JMM until they were no longer top fighters. The loss to Norwood set JMM back almost 3 years. Then in between the Pac vs Morales trilogy he took turned down a rematch with Manny to fight Chris John for peanuts abroad and walked away with an L.... which further threw him out of the loop. Had he not lost that fight he may have fought Morales then but it didnt matter because Morales had been destroyed by Pac and had lost 3 straight fights. Both JMM and Morales were unified champs at the same time in divisions separated by 4lbs. The issue was, Morales had momentum and his name in his favor and JMM didnt.
looks like i got my excuse for not going over to my gf's house tomorrow....she lives in boston....i told her there's too much shyt going on there and ill come through next weekend when hopefully it dies down..she agreed talmbout safety first..and im like yeah "safety 
"..so i won't miss tomorrow afternoon's card and im sure there's no afternoon card the next saturday either 
No one (outside of Floyd) beats JMM easily
