By Jim De Pierro

21.06 - Many of you no doubt are sitting at home as you read this column kicking yourselves for wasting fifty-five dollars in what promised to be a fight for the ages only to witness a gross mismatch as Lennox Lewis systematically destroyed the illusion of Mike Tyson as the baddest man on the planet. If your wallet is not to light and your still itching to see a good fight in what really should be a classic fight to remember then I would urge you to buy the Barrera-Morales PPV.

Not since the days of Santa Anna has Mexico been on the brink of a major war as Marco Antonio Barrera 54-3 (39 KOs) and Erik Morales 41-0 (31 KOs) will continue their epic battle from their first fight begun on February 19, 2000 in what was fight of the year. In the first fight Erik Morales won a very controversial split decision in a fight what many boxing fans including this one felt should have been awarded to Barrera. I personally feel that Barrera won by about six to seven points depending on how you score the 12th round where Barrera was incorrectly credited with a knockdown. I will concede that there were many fluid rounds where a case could be made for either fighter. The punch stats of the first fight were slightly in Morales favor as he landed a total of 319 punches out of 868 thrown (37% connect rate) to Barrera’s 299 punches landed out of 618 punches thrown (48% connect rate). To me it clearly appeared that Barrera landed the harder more telling blows of the first fight. Although both fighters fought with a lot of heart Barrera was the one pressing the fight and was more times than not the aggressor.

My first reaction to the decision of the first fight was that the decision was purely a political one where the judges were looking to preserve the undefeated record of the house fighter Erik Morales. Upon further reflection when viewing the fight again it occurred to me that Morales threw approximately 25% more punches than Barrera did. Judges don’t have the benefit of punch stat numbers and in a back and forth contest where the punches are being thrown with abandon the fighter that is throwing more may give the impression that he is winning the fight. I still maintain that Barrera won the fight but I think but I can see how the judges may have been swayed in some of those rounds.

It has been my experience in watching boxing that re-matches tend to be judged a little more fairly than the first fight and if anything are overly sympathetic to the fighter who was wronged in the first fight. There are a few factors that are different going into the re-match from the first fight. This fight is being held at the featherweight limit of 126 lbs whereas the first fight was fought at jr. featherweight limit of 122 lbs. Morale’s people claim that 122 lb limit hindered Morale’s performance and that he will do better against Barrera at 126 lbs. Given that Barrera has looked dominant in his last three performances at 126 lbs and Morales most recent fights against other featherweights have been spotty at best I don’t think the higher weight division will be of any major significance. One factor that works in Barrera’s favor to a small degree is that Duane Ford is a judge for this fight. Ford was the one dissenting judge in the first fight that scored the fight for Barrera 114-113. The other two judges assigned for this fight, Chuck Giampa and Mike Glienna did not work the first fight.

This fight is being billed as “For Pride and Honor” although I think it might be more aptly named “For Bigotry and Racism” as the war of words between Morales and Barrera has included some ugly language with Barrera deriding Morales Indian heritage and Morales calling Barrera “mariquita” which loosely translated is synonymous with the English word for a bundle of sticks. The tension between these two reached a boiling point at a press conference last December when Barrera challenged Morales to say what he did to his face. Morales took Barrera up on his challenge at which point Barrera punched Morales. I won’t try to take sides as I am sure there is more history to the animosity between these two than I am aware of but its my observation that the dislike these two feel for each other originated at some point after the first fight. After the first fight Morales handed Barrera back his WBO title as a sign of respect for the fight he fought. It is certainly possible all this might be an effort just to sell the fight but I tend to think when real punches are thrown the hate is genuine. Of course two weeks ago Tyson had me pretty well fooled in that I thought his trash talking and actions indicated a genuine hatred of Lewis.

Some of the greatest fights in boxing took on an extra dimension in that the involved fighters represented cross segments of society. Frazier and Ali had that kind of rivalry in that Ali was a hero to the counterculture anti-war segment of society in the 60’s and 70’s whereas those who were more inclined towards traditional values tended to like Frazier as the anti-Ali. Louis-Schmelling is another case in point as Joe Louis and Max Schmelling came to symbolize the might of their respective countries. It should be noted that Schmelling himself never subscribed to the ideas and ideologies of the Third Reich. Barrera-Morales has that kind of dimension to it in that they each represent different cross segments of Mexican society along the lines of race, class and geography. Morales hales from Tijuana where many of the inhabitants are directly descended from the Indigenous peoples of the Americas before the arrival of the Spaniards. Barrera is from Mexico City and is, as I understand it from a middle class background.

My head says Barrera should be favored to win Saturday night based on his most recent performances. Both Morales and Barrera are 5-0 with 3 KOs since facing each other. Morales is coming off two fairly weak performances where he looked vulnerable. I thought the Morales-Espadas fight besides being incredibly boring was about even. Barrera in the three fights I have seen him in since his fight with Morales has looked absolutely sensational. Barrera turned Jesus Salud into an old man over night with a lopsided beating. The Hawaian Punch might have to change his nickname to the Hawaian Punch Drunk, as Salud is 1-3 since losing to Barrera.

One thing I have noticed about Barrera in his two most recent fights against Hamed and Sanchez is his improved defense as he was hardly hit at all during those fights.

Even though my head says Barrera my gut feeling is that this fight is going to come down to who wants it more. I expect Morales is going to enter this fight highly motivated and will not look like the fighter that fought Espadas and Injin Chi. If I had to think of one word to describe how Barrera fights that word would have to be ruthless. Against Hamed I will always remember how Barrera knowing that he had a commanding lead took the opportunity to run Hameds head into the ring post even thought it cost him a point. My feeling is that Barrera is still the hungrier of the two fighters and will win a very closely contested fight on points setting up rubber match at some point in the future.

Marco Antonio Barrera Majority Decision over Erik Morales