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 The Best Barrera in Boxing?
By Steve Kim (March 24, 2003)
Photo © German Villasenor
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It would be a bit of hyperbole for me to state that IBF strawweight titlist, Miguel Barrera has surpassed his namesake Marco Antonio, as the sport's best Barrera. He simply doesn't have the history, lineage, longevity and consistency of his featherweight colleague. But this Colombian is making some big strides.
"You can make a claim for this guy to be a top ten pound-for-pound guy right now," remarked Dave 'the Hat' Cokin, a noted Las Vegas radio host and a regular at the fights, after Barrera's third round destruction of Roberto Leyva on Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay.
His third meeting with the Mexican southpaw was the de facto main event of Top Rank's 'Latin Fury' pay-per-view card and considered the fight card's best matchup. Instead, Barrera would pound Leyva with an array of hard hooks and crosses to the body and head. The end would come quickly in round three as a right uppercut to the gut would leave Leyva writhing in pain on the canvas and counted out.
"We thought it'd be easier," Barrera would say later on that evening. "We knew him a lot better now, we knew what we needed to do. I think we did everything we needed to do during training camp."
Much like the second bout, which was one of the top fights of 2002, Leyva simply couldn't get Barrera off him. His pressure would suffocate and stop Leyva.
"Early on," Barrera explained through translator Ricardo Jimenez, "when I hit him in the body I could hear him grunt. So I felt, 'Hey, I have a real good chance of getting this guy out early'."
Which he did. While Barrera was stout, Leyva didn't have nearly the same zeal as he had against Barrera last August. But Leyva insisted that Barrera was no better this time out.
"I don't think he was any stronger than the first two times," he would tell the assembled media at the post-fight press conference. "I know he was strong, he just happened to catch me right in the stomach. I just got the wind knocked out of me. I was never able to get it back. That's basically what happened to me."
The future looks bright for this hard-nosed Colombian. He's only 24, he's fresh off his first successful title defense and his style lends itself to making good fights. On the flip side, being a 105-pounder does have it's obvious drawbacks. For one, you simply won't make that much money. Secondly, it's never the deepest division -- afterall, most athletes that small are riding on top of thoroughbreds. And lastly, the American public, largely ignores the smaller weight classes.
The crowd on Saturday night at the Mandalay Events Center was sparse and it's debatable if they had as many people there inside the arena as they did inside their jam-packed sports book in the midst of 'March Madness'. 'Latin Fury' was a smaller pay-per-view show and with it beginning at 11 p.m. on the East Coast, who knows how many people east -- or west of the Mississippi, for that matter -- actually saw his impressive display. But he did make a statement and the right people have taken notice.
"I don't know anybody in that division that's strong enough to hold this kid off," said Bob Arum, who promoted 'Latin Fury'. "I mean, he just comes in like a Joe Frazier and just bounces punches off you. And the only way you can stop him is to have real solid punches yourself and I don't see anybody at 105 pounds that can fire with this kid."
And while Ricardo 'Finito' Lopez, the most notable fighter ever to fight at that weight class, had problems or was reluctant to make big fights, Arum is more than willing to make sure that Barrera can at least unify the division.
"We have Ivan Calderon, he'll be fighting on the De La Hoya-Campas card for the WBO title, there's Jose Antonio Aguirre (WBC), we have three champions," said Arum. "It would be fun to do an all mini-fly, flyweight, strawweight card. Certainly, the guys are very affordable. I wouldn't mind doing that. I think they're might be a market for it."
Which would suit Barrera just fine.
"That's what I've been told. I have a good chance of meeting him in my next fight," said Barrera, of a future meeting with Aguirre. "So I would definitely like to meet Jose Antonio Aguirre next."
In attendance Saturday night was Fernando Beltran, who manages Aguirre. Beltran seemed very amenable to making a unification tilt between Barrera and Aguirre.
"Definitely, definitely," Beltran answered, when asked about that being a possibility. "Like Bob said, he promotes both guys and definitely that's what we want to do. We want to put the best fights together and if the people want to see Jose Antonio Aguirre against Miguel Barrera, we'll definitely do it."
It would be a solid fight. Aguirre is a tall and rangy boxer with good skills. It would be the classic fight between a puncher and boxer. And it would bring some much needed notoriety to an often neglected weight class.
But there's no question in Miguel Diaz's mind, who is the world best strawweight.
"No question about it," said Diaz, who's not exactly the most unbiased opinion since he does train Barrera. "He's not only strong, but he can fight because he avoided a lot of the punches of Leyva. Leyva's a very dangerous fighter with a good right hand. I think it'll be a great fight between him and Jose Antonio Aguirre or the winner of Jorge Mata (WBO) and Calderon would be a very interesting fight."
FUTURE FURIES
So what's in store for future edition's of 'Latin Fury'?
"There are two 'Latin Fury' cards being discussed," stated Arum. "One maybe at the end of May and the other at the end of June. "One card will feature the Marquez (Juan Manuel and Rafael) in title defenses. The other card will be from Puerto Rico and it'll have Miguel Cotto, assuming he wins April 19th, Daniel Santos against Fulgencio Zuniga and the third fight, Eric Morel against Irene Pacheco."
The Morel-Pacheco fight is by far the most intriguing as it unifies the flyweight titles of the two best 112 pounders.
CHAVEZ
So what's in store of Jesus Chavez, who stopped a shot Carlos Gerena? It looks like he'll be getting a crack at WBC 130-pound titlist, Sirimongkol Singmanassuk.
"Yeah, that's the deal," affirmed Arum. "His next fight is against the Thai. As soon as his hand is ready, we're gonna do that fight I'm gonna look to do it in Austin, Texas where Chavez is so popular."
SUGAR RUSH
I think that the long term future of Julio Diaz is still a bit hazy after his seventh round TKO of Ernesto 'Baby' Zepeda. Diaz has good all-around skills and is well schooled. But I don't know how sturdy he is at 135 pounds. More than one observer on press row remarked that he was fortunate that he didn't end up facing Jose Luis Castillo like he was supposed to.
He's still very young, only in his early 20s and you'd think his management would feed him a steady diet of 'Baby' Zepeda-like opponents for awhile, but afterwards he and his management were talking of facing Castillo immediately -- although some in his camp are dead set against it. It'll be interesting to see how they handle this guy's future.
But Arum, who had such high hopes for 'the Kidd', is still bitter about his first pro loss against Angel Manfredy in October of 2001. A loss, he feels, that sent his fighter into a tailspin.
"We think what happened with Julio was just a travesty that boxing is susceptible to," Arum said of the events surrounding that fight and pointing a finger squarely at Manfredy promoter, Sugar Ray Leonard. "Diaz won that fight easily with Manfredy. The referee took away two points -- that was ridiculous -- even with the two point deduction, Diaz was way ahead. But a former great champion and his group feel that's the way you can act in boxing and there's no question in my mind, I was there, that they influenced the officials and Julio took it so badly that in his next fight, he was depressed and got knocked out in the first round."
Actually, it was two fights later against Juan Valenzuela where he got stopped, but we get the point. But the irony here is dripping, Arum, himself has been involved in more than a few controversial decisions where he was accused of using his influence. And of course, Leonard, in fights most notably against the likes of Marvin Hagler and the rematch with Tommy Hearns, was the recipient of what many felt were dubious decisions. Both of those bouts were promoted by guess who? Bob Arum. It's a small world, this boxing.
FINAL FLURRIES
Speaking of which, I guess it took signing with Don King for Cory Spinks to get a fair shake in the IBF and in Italy against Michelle Piccirillo.... Which has me wondering out loud if King has plans to unify his welterweight titles with Spinks and WBA titlist Ricardo Mayorga before Vernon Forrest gets a crack at his title again..... By the way, isn't Michael Stewart against Chucky T, just a televised club show on ESPN2's 'Friday Night Fights'? It's funny, these guys can get on 'FNF' but Jermain Taylor can't seem to get on the network and he's a real prospect and former Olympian.... ESPN2 can talk all they want about conflict of interests in Nevada with the Alamos but the relationship they have/had with Russel Peltz (who just happened to be the promoter of Stewart-T) is just as questionable to a lot of people.
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E-Mail Steve Kim at k9kim@maxboxing.com
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