Marco Antonio Barrera will revert to his old explosive style for Saturday’s WBC super-featherweight title defence against fellow Mexico City native Juan Manuel Marquez.
The pair meet in Las Vegas in an intriguing, highly-anticipated showdown which is difficult to call.
Barrera, 33, has honed his boxing skills in recent years after making his name as a cavalier, come-forward brawler.
But he has been unable to ignore the fact Marquez remains the superior boxer. ‘The Baby-Faced Assassin’ revealed he and trainer Rudy Perez initially trained to match Marquez’s style before adopting a different gameplan.
“We tried to learn it in camp,” Barrera said.
“I tried to box against my sparring partners and I really couldn’t do it.
“I couldn’t learn it, so we’ll have to go back to being the old Barrera for this fight. I can’t bring the new Barrera to beat him. I’m going to have to fight him.”
Barrera’s admission is good news for fight fans but may cause consternation among his supporters, who may fear their man is playing into the hands of his opponent.
Marquez, also 33, does not enjoy the same profile as Barrera or some of his fellow countryman but he does have skills to match anyone.
As well as being a skilful counter-puncher, he picked himself up off the canvas three times in the first round to draw with Manny Pacquiao in a thrilling contest in 2004. Defeat by Indonesian Chris John in 2005 was a major setback but Marquez has recovered, winning the WBO interim featherweight title before securing this shot at Barrera up at super-feather.
But what a difference four pounds can make. Marquez is venturing into a division in which Barrera is not even the top man. That honour goes to the increasingly-impressive Filipino Pacquiao, with Morales, Edwin Valero and Joan Guzman also jostling for position.
Nevertheless, Marquez has the calibre and reputation to walk straight up to super-featherweight and secure a fight of this magnitude, as Barrera – who is without a stoppage win since 2005 – admits.
“To me it is an honour to give the public a fight of this nature,” said the former pound-for-pound favourite.
“It is very important to me for fans to remember me as a fighter who was fighting the top fighters and giving them the top fights. I don’t want to be remembered as a fighter who fought fighters of poor quality.”
While the prospect of the ‘old’ Barrera returning following uninspiring wins over Rocky Juarez (twice) and Robbie Peden is exciting, he will need to be better than ever to punch his way through Marquez’s stellar defence and counter strategy.
Offering strong support at the Mandalay Bay resort is Daniel Ponce De Leon’s WBO super-bantamweight title defence against Filipino Gerry Penalosa.
