It wasn't quite like their first fight, but it was close, and it was bitter, ugly and passionate.

And when the dust settled, Marco Antonio Barrera, with scores of 115-115, 114-115, and 112-115, was handed a majority decision victory over Erik Morales last night at the MGM Grande in Las Vegas (I scored it 114-115 for Barrera).

It was the clearest decision of the fiercely fought trilogy between the two Mexican warriors, a trilogy that will go down in boxing history as one of the greatest of all time. The pre-fight mood seemed to be that Morales, who was all smiles and relaxed before the fight, would either knock out Barrera or win a landslide decision. Add to that that Morales had put on an additional eleven pounds since the weigh-in and was up to 141 pounds, whereas Barrera weighed about 132. And add to that still, that this was Barrera's first fight at junior lightweight, and his last fight was against a small junior feather who had moved up in weight. Morales was going into the ring with a six-fight winning streak, and he had every reason to be cocky.

And oh yeah, they were using a brand of gloves favoured by Morales, a Japanese company called Winning.

But despite all of this, Barrera overcame the odds and won the most definitive, if not his most aesthetically-pleasing, fight of his career.

Barrera, 59-4 (41), won the first round handily, using his jab and counter-punching effectively. Despite chants of "Terrible!" and "Tijuana!" from the pro-Morales crowd, the champion couldn't or didn't want to box Barrera on the outside, and was being nailed by the Barrera jab, a weapon the Mexico City fighter used with success throughout the fight.

By the end of the sixth round, I had Barrera up five rounds to one.

It seemed that every time Morales instigated a toe-to-toe war, he would get the worst of it, though he landed some hellacious right hands and multi-punch combinations. At one point, Barrera clearly hit Morales behind the head and was not deducted a point, which infuriated Morales and changed the dynamic of the fight, but not in the way Morales would have hoped. Morales took it to Barrera in the second half of the fight, but was overly aggresive and unfocused. Barrera fought back valiantly, landing some monster left hooks and making Morales think twice. Going into the last round, Morales made the sign of the cross and went in for the kill. Barrera held his own, but was so exhausted at one point he seemed on the verge of collapse. Clearly, there was no love lost between the two warriors. It was beautiful.

When the bell rang to close out the 12th, both fighters continued swinging at eachother. And when the decision was announced, the gracious crowd acknowledged Barrera, and an elated Oscar De La Hoya, who promotes him, was even more excited than his fighter.

When HBO commentator Larry Merchant made his remarks after he interviewed Morales, he chose to condemn the fighter for being a sore loser (when Barrera went to shake his hand after the fight, Morales threw water in his father's face) and making excuses, instead of playing up the greatness of the trilogy and paying homage to the heart and courage of BOTH fighters. He let his own personal feelings dictate his questions to Morales ("Do you think your nose is broken?") and found a little too much pleasure in the fact that Barrera won.

Perhaps it can be said that Barrera fought the smarter fight, won the battle, and in doing so, won the war.

History will look upon Barrera as the winner of the Barrera-Morales trilogy. History, however, will look upon both fighters as winners, warriors, and lock-ins for the Hall of Fame.