Marquez Downs Barrera
By Michael Woods March 17th, 2007On Saturday night, Juan Manuel Marquez outfought Marco Antonio Barrera and came away with a unanimous decision and a WBC junior lightweight (super featherweight) world championship in front of an announced 8,127 at Mandalay Bay, reports Dan Rafael of ESPN.com.
Judge Doug Tucker had it 118-109 while judges Patricia Morse Jarman and Paul Smith each had it 116-111. It looks like Barrera and his primary foil, Erik Morales, have ceded control of the top two tiers among Mexican battlers.
There was heavy drama in the seventh, when Barrera dropped Marquez, but ref Jay Nady ruled it a slip. Then, Barrera moved in on the crouching Marquez, USA Today reported, and Nady intervened, deducting a point from Barrera.
“They gave us nothing. We earned it,” Marquez said to Rafael. “This fight is very important for me. I said in the press conference this fight [will be] a war. I won the fight.”
“I did the necessary things to win,” Barrera said postbout. “He hit me four times below the belt and [referee Jay Nady] never said anything. They were bad judges. I won this fight. I don’t know what happened.”
Marquez is now 47-3-1 while Barrera dropped 63-5.
Lest you think Marquez is some fresh faced newbie on the scene, by the way, you should know both he and Barrera are 33 years old. Barrera has held the WBC strap since 2004, when he wrested it from Erik Morales in their third (and final) beef…
HBO will re-play the bout next Saturday night (9:45 ET/PT) and will also play the Mikkel Kessler-Librado Andrade super middleweight title fight.
Both Barrera and Marquez were hoping for the money match, and that means Manny. Marquez, it looks like, could get that opportunity in the late summer. Or, perhaps, Marquez and Barrera will do it again, and enthrall fight fans with a tasty sequel…
March 18th, 2007 at 12:17 am
it seemed to be an interesting fight between jmm and pacman, but is the promoter of both fighter willing to join hands or share the booty for that fight, i think crocodile hates crocodile, am i right or wrong.
March 18th, 2007 at 10:25 am
I had a 114-1113 victory for Barrera. He seemed more aggressive, and he seemed more relaxed and calm. Still, Marquez did land when needed, I just don’t think it was enough. Even I admit I will have to watch it again.
March 18th, 2007 at 10:13 pm
Insanity! This sport gets worse and worse. Sure Marquez looked like the stronger fighter but Barrera did what he had to do and did it like a champ. At the end it could have gone either way but the scores from these ignorant judges was a slap in the face to a great champ like Barrera. There is too much corruption in this sport, these fighters kill themselves training and some criminal sets them up to lose. Somebody do something!
March 20th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
The scoring in the bout was ridiculous. The joke is that Jay Nady’s blunder didn’t even figure into the outcome because the judges had Marquez a walk away winner.
I had Barrera winning by one point if the knockdown had counted. The way Nady ruled it swung it to a Marquez win, but who is this jackass who had JMM winning by 9 points. What fight was he watching??????