Marco Antonio Barrera, back after his hammering by Manny Pacquiao, looked quick, confident and authoritative in a 10th-round KO over Paulie Ayala, televised from the Staples Center outdoors arena in the Los Angeles suburbs on 19 June.
On the face of it, this was a superb win for the 30-year-old Barrera, putting him right back in the thick of things in the featherweight division.
Ayala had never been stopped before, never been floored, and he had stood up to heavy-duty hitting from Erik Morales, Barrera?s big Mexican rival, in a 12-round points defeat in November 2002.
So, for Barrera to dominate him, knock him down three times and blow him out had to be a tremendous result, right?
Well, not entirely.
The Ayala we saw in the ring against Barrera did not seem to be as tough, tenacious or as ?up? for the fight as we have seen in the past.
I thought the Home Box Office television analyst, Larry Merchant, got it right when he said that Ayala had the look of a boxer who?d had too many flashbulbs popped in front of his face.
This wasn?t the Ayala who took the best that Morales threw at him, steamed back and even won some rounds.
At the age of 34, Ayala, a former bantamweight champion who won a title at 122 pounds (8st 10lbs) before moving up to featherweight, seemed, to me, to be going through the motions.
I think that a lot of hard fights finally caught up with the southpaw from Fort Worth, Texas.
He was there in body, but not, I thought, in spirit.
The problem with Ayala is that he has never been a particularly hard puncher, with just 12 opponents stopped in a record of 35 wins and two losses going into this fight.
Without serious firing power, Ayala has had to outhustle, outwork and outgame the other man. It is a style that demands a lot of mental and physical energy. Against Barrera, he didn?t have those qualities going for him.
What we saw was an Ayala who looked mentally tired from the first round.
Barrera was able to control the fight and more or less do what he liked, because he wasn?t being challenged.
And so Barrera piled up points with a snappy left jab, triggered off bursts of sharp combinations and to all intents and purposes enjoyed himself.
It was a classy exhibition of boxing, no doubt about that. As in his fights with Johnny Tapia and Kevin Kelley, his last two appearances before getting swept away by the Pacquiao hurricane, he showed that he has all the tools when allowed to dictate things at his own pace.
The performance definitely lent credence to the widespread belief that Barrera wasn?t himself against Pacquiao due to a set of circumstances, namely a bitter ending to a long-term promotional arrangement, the controversy caused by a leaked story about brain surgery that he underwent in 1997, when what have been described as ?small protective implants? were inserted in his skull, and, to cap it all, the distraction of having to abandon training camp ahead of schedule at Big Bear, California, due to raging brush fires.
Certainly Barrera didn?t look anywhere near his best as Pacquiao ran right over him.
The Barrera who destroyed Ayala was nothing like the mentally lethargic, psychologically downbeat fighter who let Pacquiao have his way.
But, I wonder, did Barrera look this good because he is truly back to his best, or because of the opponent he was facing?
Ayala, to me, had the look of a fighter who knew from the start he couldn?t win but tried to make the best of a bad situation.
It was never a contest. I made the note, watching on TV, in the second round that Ayala ?seems to be hurt more than he was in the Morales fight?.
Not a good sign at all, and there were still 10 rounds to go. Already, I was having my doubts that Ayala would make it.
In the third Ayala missed so wildly with a right hook from his southpaw posture that he blundered into the ropes. Barrera, in gentlemanly fashion, stood back, let his opponent right himself, and touched gloves with the older man. He had the look of a fighter who could end matters whenever he felt like turning up the heat.
But, as one round after another slowly passed I got to thinking that perhaps this would be a repeat of the Barrera-Tapia fight in which Barrera was content to outpoint a veteran who couldn?t hurt him.
It wasn?t to be that way. Whereas Tapia was upbeat and even enthusiastic in taking his beating, Ayala, I thought, was flying distress signals, especially from the body punches.
Even so, Barrera was very patient, making sure that he had his opponent exactly where he wanted him before unloading the big guns.
There was a smattering of boos in the fourth, and in the fifth Ayala slipped to the canvas but threw enough punches to win the round on one judge?s card. But Ayala?s face was starting to look swollen and in the seventh Barrera hurt him with a barrage of shots to body and head.
Ayala looked very discouraged now, and this was the cue for Barrera to open up with a sustained, very impressive attack in the eighth.
A right uppercut started the avalanche and Ayala had a bewildered, pained look, twice taking a knee for the respite of the mandatory eight count and barely making it out of the round.
He said afterwards that Barrera?s corner was signalling to him to stay down but that he had too much heart for that.
The fight could have been stopped, but referee Pat Russell, although concerned, knew Ayala?s reputation for durability and gave the veteran a chance at least to go the distance in an unwinnable fight.
And Ayala did indeed rally a bit in the ninth, winning the round on two judges? cards as Barrera coasted.
But Barrera had merely been gathering himself before launching another offensive, in the 10th, and this time Ayala crumbled, a final, wicked left hook to the body completing the job as the outgunned loser hovered between staying up and going down: The final body shot made up his mind for him. Referee Russell, knowing there was no need to count, waved an end to the mismatch after two minutes, 34 seconds of the 10th.
With his overall mastery and emphatic finish, Barrera made a statement. He still has a great deal of talent and he still has power. He looked as good as he did when outclassing Prince Naseem Hamed three years ago. And yes, he said, he would like another fight with Pacquiao.
It would be an attraction, almost ? surprisingly enough considering the rout of the first meeting ? an even-money fight.
Pacquiao doesn?t look like quite such a raging force of nature after being fought to a standstill by Juan Manuel Marquez.
It is possible to envisage a mentally and physically sharp Barrera meeting Pacquiao?s aggression with jabs and hooks and uppercuts, making the Filipino miss, countering him and slowing him down ? just as he was supposed to do in the first fight.
The other scenario, of course, is that Pacquiao?s fast-paced aggression and gritty intensity would deny Barrera the chance to turn the fight into a boxing match and that, once again, the Mexican fighter would be pushed back, outpunched, disheartened and overwhelmed.
But after Pacquiao?s fight with Marquez, and Barrera?s trouncing of Ayala that has sent his opponent into retirement, I don?t think we can be quite sure which way a Barrera-Pacquiao rematch would go.
After all, they say you?re as good as your last fight, and Barrera undeniably looked very good indeed against Ayala.
