MARCO Antonio Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez, who slug it out on Mar. 17 for the WBC super featherweight crown at the Mandalay Bay Casino on March 17, have taken opposite corners at the mention of Manny Pacquiao.
While Marquez still hopes to get a rematch against Pacquiao, Barrera has coyly deflected the issue, opting instead to announce he is retiring at the end of 2007—whether or not he gets a fight with the Gen. Santos City star, regarded as the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
“I am past that fight,” Barrera told boxingconfidential.com. “I wanted it. But if it does not happen, it does not happen. I am looking to retire in 2007.”
Barrera (63-4, 42 KOs) and Marquez (46-3-1, 35 KOs) spoke with the boxing website during the press conference hosted by Golden Boy Promotions chief Oscar De La Hoya for their fight.
And it was Marquez who is hot after Pacquiao.
“It is like a small thorn in a lion’s paw,” Marquez told the website. “I want to remove that thorn, of drawing with Pacquiao, from my paw.”
The “lion” was floored three times when he faced Pacquiao in May 2004, but fought brilliantly to a controversial draw. A judge later admitted he erred in scoring, denying Pacquiao of victory.
A rematch was supposed to be in the works, but Marquez balked at the purse and took on Chris John for a lower amount instead and, worse, lost that fight.
Barrera had been demolished by Pacquiao when the two met in San Antonio, Texas, in 2003. Pacquiao scored an 11th-round technical knockout of the Mexican icon, one so decisive and brutal many people thought it would be the end of Barrera’s career.
But Barrera bounced back, beating archrival Erik Morales to end their trilogy in his favor and then scoring a decision over Rocky Juarez, a fight where he was booed by the crowd for playing safe.
A legal battle between De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions and Bob Arum’s Top Rank ruined what could have been a highly-anticipated rematch between the two super featherweights.
Still, De La Hoya, who promotes Barrera and Marquez, said that he is willing to arrange a fight between his fighters and Pacquiao if that is what they want.
“If Marco wants that fight before he retires this year, I will work at it,” De La Hoya said.
