01.09.07 – By Joshua “Travz” Travilla: The anticipated rematch between Marco Antonio Barrera (63-5, 42 KOs) “The Baby Face Assassin” of Mexico and Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao (44-3-2, 35 KOs) from the Philippines, will make the world stop in their respective countries when they collide for the WBC international super featherweight boxing championship this coming October 6, 2007 at Mandalay Bay Casino & Resort, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Barrera, 33, a native from Mexico City, will be facing another fight of his life when he battles an opponent whom he was annihilated by in a 11th Round TKO loss at Alamodome, in San Antonio, Texas in November 15, 2003. Strange as it may seem now, many critics considered Pacquiao to be a as a heavy underdog at the time. The Baby Face Assassin would be able to experience once again a sizzling bout as expected.
Recently, both Pacquiao and Barrera are coming from a sort of bad loss respectively. Barrera lost his WBC super featherweight belt to former IBF/WBA and WBO interim Featherweight Champion Juan Manuel “Dinamita” Marquez by 12-round unanimous decision on March 17, 2007, while Pacquiao, 28, was beaten by Darlene Antonino – Custodio in a congressional seat when he tried his luck by running into politics. Unfortunately, however, majority of his fans didn’t like what their ring idol had started. As such, Pacquiao and Barrera both are in need of boncing back and will surely give their all out boxing abilities to be able to obtain once again the respect and sympathy of their legions of fans worldwide.
Many experts in boxing community believe that Barrera will be the underdog this time because of his advanced age, now 33, and his diminishing reflexes, but we must take note that age is not a prime issue in this mega buck fight. As we saw in the recent bout between Gerry Penalosa and Jhonny Gonzalez, it only takes one solid hook to change the result of a fight regardless of how far behind a fighter is in a fight.
We all know that Barrera, now a legend and a future hall of famer, is still a dangerous fighter inside the ring and knows how to deal with his opponents. The only problem with Barrera, however, is that sometimes he cannot control his temper inside the ring, causing him to have point deductions, like in his first encounter with Pacquiao.