LOS ANGELES (March 30) ? Marco Antonio Barrera, who crowned himself super featherweight champion with a unanimous decision win over bitter rival Erik ?El Terrible? Morales has some sound advice for Ring Magazine and International Boxing Association featherweight champion Manny Pacquiao ? accept your defeat.
?Morales was the better fighter that night,? even as he asked Pacquiao to stop using the gloves he wore as an excuse.
Barrera, who suffered a crushing 11th-round TKO to Pacquiao on Nov. 15, 2003 in San Antonio, Texas, is deep in preparation for his super featherweight title defense with South African contender Mzonke Fana.
The South African won the right to a mandatory shot at the 130-pound title by defeating the Philippine?s Oriental champion Randy Suico in a controversial split decision last year in South Africa.
A rematch with Pacquiao is a distinct possibility, even before the Ring Magazine champion plunges into a fight with Morales, which his fans are clamoring for in order for the Filipino ring warrior to avenge his bitter defeat.
Barrera said what many other fighters, including former undisputed light heavyweight champion Roy Jones Jr. and renowned trainer Emmanuel Steward, who handled heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis have said: ?The gloves made no difference, disputing the initial claims of Pacquiao?s trainer Freddie Roach that by forcing Pacquiao to wear the expensive, more thickly padded Winning gloves instead of the cheaper Cleto Reyes Mexican gloves, which Roach described as puncher?s gloves, international promoter Murad Muhammad had sold out to the Morales camp.?
