CARSON, CALIF. – Marco Antonio Barrera and Paulie Ayala knew what the stakes were when they stepped into the ring against each other at the Home Depot Center on Saturday night. The loser would slip into irrelevance and the winner would go on to bigger paydays. Barrera took a giant step forward. With methodical precision, Barrera (58-4, 41 KOs) dissected Ayala for nine rounds and finally took him out in the 10th, scoring a TKO and paving the way for a possible rematch with Manny Pacquiao and reclaiming his crown as the featherweight king.
“I feel very good and very comfortable,” Barrera said. “It shows that I’m back and that what happened in November was a bad night.”
