By Ronnie Nathanielsz

Eric Morel who turned down the offers of WBA super flyweight interim champion Nonito "The Filipino Flash" Donaire and WBO Oriental bantamweight champion Michael Domingo to step in for his original opponent Jorge "Travieso" Arce, has been dropped from the Top Rank "Latin Fury 15" fight card at the Alamadome in San Antonio, Texas on June 26.

 

Arce suffered a three inch deep cut under his right eyelid on his first day of sparring and doctors recommended two weeks off at least which set back his training forcing him to pull-out and since Morel said he would rather wait than face either Donaire or Domingo, Arum told us "Morel is off the card ."

 

Promoter Bob Arum said Morel WBO bantamweight title fight will be replaced by the clash between three-time world champion and Mexican legend Marco Antonio Barrera (65-7, 43 KO’s) and Brazil’s Adailton De Jesus (26-4, 21 KO’s) in the co-main event, sharing the spotlight with undefeated and world-rated Julio Cesar Chavez (40-0-1, 30 KO’s) who battles Ireland’s John Duddy (29-1, 18 KO’s) for the WBC silver middleweight title in the main event.

 

Barrera who is nicknamed "The Baby Faced Assassin" has made it clear that is goal is to win a fourth world title saying "I want to win a fourth world title and its something that motivates me to train and to fight and to keep going." said Barrera, a three-time world champion.

 

The 36 year old, Barrera returns to the ring after a 15-month lay-off in the saame venue where he suffered his worst beating at the hands of current pound-for-pound king and "Fighter of the Decade" Manny Pacquiao in November 2003.

 

Top Rank reports that Barrera is training in his hometown of Guadalajara, Mexico where he trained for his rematch with Pacquiao which he lost by a unanimous twelve round decision. Barrera has said "I am very happy here in Guadalajara. So along with my team we decided to train here for my return to the ring on June 26."

 

Barrera is best remembered for his smashing victory over Naseem Hamed and his memorable trilogy with another Mexican legend Erik Morales whom he defeated twice. Morales was also victorious in his comeback recently.

 

Arum conceded that Filipino fight fans who will be able to watch the telecast of "Latin Fury 15" over the giant broadcast network ABS-CBN would probably like to see how Barrera looks in his return to the ring.

 

Barrera himself knows what he wants. He said "I want to comeback with a spectacular fight. I have trained hard and little by little I am getting better and I want to show everyone how serious I am about getting the fourth world title."

 

Barrera, has won world titles at super bantamweight, super featherweight and lightweight. In his last fight in March 2009 he lost a fifth round technical decision to reigning WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan of Britain who was trained by Freddie Roach at the Wild Card Gym. Khan later thanked Pacquiao for some useful inputson how to fight Barrera and for giving him the confidence to get into the ring and get the job done.

 

Barrera said he needs to be in great condition – and he will. He said " I am still very hungry and want to look good in my return to show everyone that I am still capable of winning another world title."

 

His opponent De Jesus is coming off a 2nd round TKO of Rodolfo Franz in a rematch last March 27, 2010. In an earlier bout on February 2, 2010 De Jesus won by a 2nd round knockout of Carlos De Jesus. He also had two stoppages in 2009 winning by a 2nd round KO over Nelson Alves Porfirio on November 10, 2009 and a 3rd round TKO in his first clash with Franz on October 24, 2009.