Marco Antonio Barrera wants to make one thing clear: he’s going after the big shark, not the little fish in the sea.
That’s what Barrera’s adviser, Roberto Diaz, told a boxing website Thursday, stressing that the Mexican boxing great wants revenge on Filipino icon Manny Pacquiao soon and has no plans of facing Pacquiao’s brother Bobby, as offered by their American trainer Freddie Roach.
“Well honestly, when I read that I laughed,” Diaz told Brad Cooney of boxingtalk.com, referring to Roach’s counter-offer on Wednesday to have Bobby Pacquiao face and then defeat Barrera, the World Boxing Council and International Boxing Federation super featherweight champion, instead of Manny.
“I thought that was pretty much funny. I was like ‘Woah, where did that name come from? Bobby Pacquiao?’… The last thing I remember about Bobby Pacquiao was him losing, and getting a gift decision against [Carlos] ‘El Famoso’ Hernandez,” he added.
“The way we see it at Team Barrera and Team Golden Boy [the company owned by Oscar De La Hoya, Barrera’s promoter] is that we are going after the big shark, not the little fish in the sea.”
On Tuesday, Barrera told the WBC he is ready to defend his 130-pound division title against Manny Pacquiao after his bout with Jesus Chavez the IBF lightweight champ slated for March 25 was canceled.
Chavez tore a muscle in his left bicep during training, forcing Barrera, who was to move up in weight to 135 pounds to face his fellow Mexican, to look for another opponent.
With his promoters working very hard to get him a fight in May, Barrera helped speed things along by throwing down the gauntlet at Pacquiao through the WBC, which gave the camp of “The People’s Champion” seven days starting Tuesday to accept the title as mandatory challenger.
Promoter Rex “Wakee” Salud, one of Pacquiao’s advisers, on Wednesday said the Filipino icon is willing to face Barrera again, but only after a bout in Manila slated for June 25 probably against another Mexican, Oscar Larios because he wants to give his local fans a treat.
“I think everyone has been waiting for this fight [Pacquiao-Barrera II], the fans deserve it, and Marco wants it bad,” Diaz said. “We haven’t seen this fight already because of conflicting schedules, and [Barrera’s] team deciding that it wasn’t the right moment.”
Now the top contender to the WBC throne after knocking out Barrera’s archrival Erik Morales last January 21, Manny Pacquiao stunned the boxing world when he stopped “The Baby Faced Assassin” in the 11th round of their first meeting November 15, 2003, at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
That victory kicked off the Filipino’s rise to the top of the boxing world, bolstered by his recent 10th-round KO of “El Terrible” at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas that avenged his earlier defeat to Morales, who in turn had lost the WBC belt to Barrera in November 2004.
Pacquiao is supposed to face Morales for a third time on September 16 after his fight in Manila, but that could change after Barrera’s open challenge.
Diaz said Barrera is ready to fill the gap in Pacquiao’s schedule in case Morales opts to not face the heavy-handed Filipino in a third bout, which Roach said would have to take place first before a rematch with the WBC and IBF champion.
“I think right now after Manny’s very convincing victory over Erik Morales, Manny is on top of the world,” Diaz told boxingtalk.com. “Barrera is the unified champion at 130 lbs, so let’s make the fight.”
“If Pacquiao’s people don’t see it that way, the have to understand that Barrera has other avenues. There are a couple of world champions that we can unify, or go up into the lightweight division, but this is the fight that everyone wants to see, and I think we should give it to them.”
