By Miguel Rivera

This Sunday, former world champion champion Marco Antonio Barrera of Mexico will pass from greatness to immortality.

'The Baby-Faced Assassin' will be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, New York.

"It's like the nobel prize of the sport; It is the biggest award there [in boxing]. Not just anyone can get there," Barrera, 44-years-old, told Albert Perez. "There are thousands of boxers and very few who have come to occupy a space here in Canastota."

In the 21 years that he participated in the pay ranks of boxing, his record close out with a tally of 67-7 with 44 knockouts. He won world titles in three different weight divisions and is considered one of the best super bantamweights in history.   

With much emotion in his voice, Barrera admitted that he never imagined that one day he would reach this type of position. Now that he is going to receive this honor, he knows the value he carries.

"I could not imagine this, when I started boxing, I just dreamed of being a world champion. I never thought my name was going to be written in golden letters in Canastota with the greats and monsters of the boxing world," Barrera said.

Barrera will be the 18th Mexican fighter to reach Canastota; He will join a select class of his compatriots like  Rubén 'Púas' Olivares, Salvador Sanchez and Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. 

In this generation of 2017, Barrera will be inducted along with Evander Holyfield, Johnny Tapia, Showtime's Steve Farhood and Barry Tompkins.

Something that distinguishes Barrera from many of legends of pugilism, is that in his history he has more than one fight to highlight his career.

He had a Fight of The Year war with Kennedy McKinney that established him as a boxing star in 1996. And there were two Fights of The Year in his historic trilogy with countryman Erik 'El Terrible' Morales.

And Barrera says the most momentous fight of his career was when he entered the ring as a massive underdog and dominated undefeated superstar Prince Naseem Hamed over twelve rounds in 2001.

"[What solidified this] brilliant career was the win over Hamed, because he came in there from winning [15 world championship fights]. [That win] is what drove us to the Hall of Fame," said Barrera.

Many expected Barrera to get knocked out. But Barrera dominated him so bad, that in the eight round he said to Hamed - in English - "who is your Daddy?."

"I wanted to play mentally with him. I knew he was already defeated, that's why we took the liberty to do something wrong," Barrera said with a laugh.  

And regarding his feud with Morales.

"It was an impressive feud over the fact that I was born in Mexico City and he was born in Tijuana. We had problems outside the ring: on the soccer field and at a press conference," Barrera explained. "All of this was taken to the ring for three bloody fights."

After more than 15 years of hostilities, both are already friends and have worked together as boxing commentators for Mexican television station TV Azteca.