LOS ANGELES — Mexico?s Marco Antonio Barrera should?ve put up a fighting final stand instead of dance that cutesy waltz to the sunset last Saturday (Sunday in Manila).
Rather than endlessly retreat, he should?ve figured in a screaming farewell shootout, with both fists blazing, against Manny Pacquiao in the Nevada Desert.
Sorry, but it was only after having successfully avoided a brutal confrontation that Barrera was able to leave the prizefight stage with his handsome profile intact.
The war script, written with the blood and tears of Emiliano Zapata Julio Cesar Chavez, called for a yours-or-mine, no-tomorrow slug-out.
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You know what?
If Pacquiao, certified fearless warrior, had, say, done something resembling the cheap manner Barrera had run his way to retirement, the Filipino superstar would?ve surely gotten more than his share of rotten tomatoes from adoring countrymen.
But, wow, instead of jeers, Barrera received a big ovation for his soft, indecisive stand before gullible countrymen in Las Vegas last Saturday.
Yes, Barrera got applauded despite having unwittingly given Mexican machismo a sissy ring to it.
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To uphold the degeneration, there was the great Oscar De La Hoya to embrace Barrera with a wild ovation as he entered the over-filled media hall at Mandalay Bay Hotel nearly an hour after his bout with Pacquiao.
It?s not easy to determine how Golden Boy wove the magic.
It was a final scene out of great Indian-Cowboy war movies.
There, all of a sudden, was the hero, whom De La Hoya would refer to as Gran Campeon, aglow, beaming like a debutante, under the blinding pop and flash of cameras.
Barrera also wore his red badge of courage — a tiny wound under his puffed left eye.
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His handler, Tony Rivera, would proudly claim that, if not for a headbutt, Barrera would?ve finished the bout clean, unscathed.
What headbutt? What did he mean clean?
For the record, Pacquiao tried his best to play it clean all throughout.
It was however Barrera who had to bend truly low when he sneaked in a foul right hand off a break.
This was late in the 11th round, Pacquiao had just ripped in a thunder-clap combination, and it had become clear that, if not for the dirty shot that merited a point deduction, Barrera would?ve been crushed cold.
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Anyway, these sordid details should?ve been similarly flushed off together with all the pre-fight debris.
But, come to think of it, didn?t Barrera also make claims earlier that Filipinos would be in for a shock?
Well, Barrera may have indeed been better prepared on Saturday than when he got mangled by Pacquiao in Texas four years ago.
But as to the claim that his one-sided loss at Mandalay Bay had sufficiently plucked the thorn in his side planted by Pacquiao following that 11th round knockout, Barrera is hereby advised to check again.
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It?s like this. Barrera on Saturday survived another ordeal without having to beg on his knees.
Great. But did he really put up a gallant, noble fight?
The answer would be properly provided by a small group of chanting Filipino fans in the upper box section, who also succeeded in re-Christening the once fearless Barrera.
There were deafening cries of Barre-RUN, Barre-RUN, Barre-RUN, from the Filipino group under the baton of real estate expert Ferdi Dalope, as the rounds wore on.
Marco, the Baby-faced Assassin, was shocking enough as he earned a new name while back-pedalling to the final sunset of an otherwise glorious career.
