LEGENDARY Mexican Marco Antonio Barrera got back into the elite boxing circle last Sunday looking like his old self as he took apart Paulie Ayala to re-ignite his career with a 10th round TKO. But was he ever gone in the first place?
According to Joey Knish of ibop.boxing.com, Barrera isn?t back from anywhere; he just went to a place called ?Mannyville, Pactown.?
Using the erstwhile featherweight king?s fight against Ayala as a scale as to how he would fare in another date with Pacman is to forget the facts, said Knish.
In his brutal bashing at the hands of the Gen-San hero last November, which Barrera described as a ?very bad night,? Barrera was simply at the wrong side of a beating, and from what was seen last weekend, a rematch with Pacquiao would be much of the same. ?Barrera is not back, he was never gone, he just fought a guy who was faster than him, stronger than him, younger than him and who had too much for him,? said Knish.
Rematch The handlers of both camps have already agreed to stage the rematch between the world?s top featherweights as soon as possible.
The New Jersey-based Murad Muhammad of M&M Sports and Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions, the promoters of Pacquiao and Barrera, will take the matter to HBO to pencil a fight date in three months the soonest.
Ayala is a southpaw and so is Pacquiao. But that is where the similarities start and end.
While Ayala was a world-class fighter, Pacquiao still is a world-class fighter. ?What gave Barrera so much trouble was that PacMan is a non-stop, come forward madman with power to spare. He had 30 KO?s in 38 wins and Barrera simply had no answer.?
When it comes to power, against Ayala, ?The Baby-Faced Assasin? was against a classy lefty who throws lots of punches but none that could hurt as much as Manny?s did. ?In terms of power comparisons between Ayala and Pacquiao, there simply are none to be made,? Knish explained.
Barrier
At 34, Ayala did not provide a great barrier for Barrera?s ?comeback,? which the latter needed to decide the fate of his career. On the other hand, Pacquiao is nearly 10 years younger than Ayala and fights a style that is completely different from that of Ayala.
?Some may contend that Pacquiao has been ?figured out? by Juan Manuel Marquez and exposed in that fight as a one trick pony. To those I say this – it is a helluva trick to be that strong and crack that hard at 126 pounds. Secondly, Marquez is the best 126-pound fighter on the planet right now. That includes Barrera, Pacquiao and division-departed Erik Morales.?
Knish added that at 30-years old and with 62 tough fights under his belt, Marco Antonio Barrera is older than his birth certificate suggests. ?Ring wars have taken their toll and if he were to leave as many openings for Pacquiao as he did against Ayala, it would be a similar ending as their first encounter.?
Barrera may have ?come back? into the ring after seven long months, but in terms of the fighter he is, he was never gone to begin with. ?On Nov. 15 of 2003, the aging Mexican only took a wrong curve on his road to 126-pound dominance and ended up in the roughest barrio, one ruled by Filipino Manny Pacquiao.?
