By Cliff Rold
His chin will still be suspect but the athletic gifts of the 22-year old 2004 United Kingdom Olympic Silver Medalist Amir Khan (20-1, 15 KO) remain a point of conviction. On Saturday night, they may well have ended the career of a legend. Over five one-sided rounds, Khan battered and bloodied 35-year old former Jr. Featherweight, Featherweight and Jr. Lightweight titlist Marco Antonio Barrera (65-7, 43 KO) en route to a shortened decision win on Saturday night at the M.E.N. Arena in Manchester, England.
Khan moves forward in the Lightweight ranks. Barrera, one might think, moves to the brink of retirement and certain enshrinement in the Hall of Fame.
Khan entered the bout just shy of the division limit at 134 ½, Barrera on the mark at 135 lbs. Stepping to center ring, a graphic size difference was immediately apparent as the taller and broader Khan shadowed the former Featherweight king. Even more graphic was a difference in speed and power in favor of the local matinee idol. Dominating with a snapping left jab, two hard rights and a left stunned Barrera at a minute in. A right uppercut burst through the guard of Barrera at the midway point and a quick clash of heads followed by a left hook and short, crisp right sent Barrera to the ropes with a gash near the hairline.
A left and right landed in flurry of blows from Khan who stepped back to give himself room, trapping Barrera against the ropes again and snapping his head with another right. Barrera attempted to respond with a left and right but both were blocked. The left side of his face dyed crimson, Barrera was stuck on the back foot, hurt again with thirty seconds to go as Khan teed off in combination. A final left struck at the bell and Barrera winced as he headed to his corner.
Barrera came out in the second to make a statement, charging forward with a right and left which missed. Pulling his gloves high and tight in defense, Barrera worked in a single left to the body but again found himself forced backwards, overwhelmed by the speed of Khan. A right turned Barrera’s whole body away from the action near the ropes halfway through but the old man was in no mood to quit. Circling away, he landed an over hand right and left the body, and then a hard counter left hook, in the final twenty seconds of an otherwise well lost round.
His corner working frantically between rounds to stem the oozing plasma still pouring from the forehead of Barrera, the Mexican came out for the third still injured. Offering token left hooks, Khan was flashy and controlling every time Barrera’s back touched the ropes, firing and landing in multiple fashion.
A counter right from Barrera found the face of Khan early in the fourth but Khan took it and forced Barrera backwards with a flurry. A short interruption to check the cut on Barrera resulted in the veteran nodding approval to continue. Waved forward by referee Dave Parris, Barrera walked into a flush right and continued to eat the bulk of the leather, futilely firing only an occasional shot in return.
The beating continued unabated for the first two minutes of the sixth before Barrera showed a brief glimmer of hope with a left hook and right hand. Khan raised his arms to say he wasn’t stunned and seconds later referee Parris led Barrera to the corner for another look at the cut. The ring doctor closed the affair immediately.
The cut having been caused by a headbutt, the fifth round was critical. Fights stopped on accidental cuts inside four typically result in no decisions or technical draws, either result denying Khan victory. Shockingly, with the cut no worse than it had been in the previous rounds, the bout made it to the most desirable point. The scorecards were academic, unanimous at 50-44 and 50-45 twice for Khan.
Khan, who only two fights prior was blasted into the floor in less than one minute by Breidis Prescott (21-0, 18 KO), basked in the glow of his greatest win before a packed house of adoring fans. His basking carried an effective chip on his shoulder. “Since day one, since I turned professional, I’ve been getting criticism. Today I proved everyone wrong. I know I got beat by Breidis Prescott but that was a mistake I made. I really said, you know, it’s a blessing in disguise. What’s happened since then, we moved to Freddie Roach’s gym in the Wild Card (in southern California) and Freddie just changed me as a fighter. You can see the difference in me now.”
Khan knew the pressure was on. “Freddie said, make or break. If you lose this fight, you can forget about a world title fight.” Roach responded to the victory by calling Khan his next World champion. Given the massive fan attention he draws, it would be a god thing for the sport if Roach is proven correct.
Barrera maintained unrealistically that the blood, and not Khan, ultimately undid him. “We came ready to fight. In the first round it was a headbutt…they didn’t stop the fight in the first round. I think they should have stopped it before because (the cut) was as big as it is now in the first round.” Barrera felt he would have won otherwise. “Definitely if I would have had my two eyes.” Barrera made no official comment on the future, indicating he’d talk to family and team.
The evidence on Saturday should signal an obvious choice. Barrera was not the only former champion who left Manchester in defeat on the night.
His trunks read “I “Heart” Mom and Dad but for large parts of the action on Saturday, 28-year old Cruiserweight Ola Afolabi (14-1-3, 6 KO), London-born and fighting out of West Hills, California, didn’t appear to “heart” throwing punches. It turned out he knew exactly what he was doing against 28-year old former WBO Cruiserweight titlist Enzo Maccarinelli (29-3, 22 KO), grinding it out to set up a highlight reel knockout in the ninth round. It was easily Afolabi’s biggest win to date and sends him back to sunny Southern California as the now interim WBO beltholder at 200 lbs.
A plodding first two rounds were dominated largely by jabs, single power shot attempts to the head and some ripping body hooks from both men. The pace quickened early in the third as Maccarinelli, 199 ¼, trapped Afolabi, 199 1/2, along the ropes, winging him with a hook upstairs and firing in combination downstairs. The greater speed of Maccarinelli kept Afolabi in a reactive mode and in the final minute it was Afolabi again fighting off the ropes. It turned into a good place for him. A counter right hook ripped through the chin of Maccarinelli with fifteen seconds to go and his legs splayed beneath him. Reaching behind Afolabi and clutching the ropes, Maccarinelli kept his feet but was still wobbly as Afolabi stalked him to mid-ring only to be cut off by the bell.
Returning to the ropes early in the fourth, Maccarinelli used his shoulder to pin Afolabi down and landed a glancing right as both men nearly toppled over the top strand. Taking another right, and then another, at mid-ring Afolabi remained poised and relaxed even waving Maccarinelli forward as he backed into the ropes. The Welshman obliged and cranked in dashing left hooks to the body. Maccarinelli closed the round with two hard left jabs and a partially blocked left hook.
Two hard jabs and a right hand began the action of the fifth for Maccarinelli at center ring before some more grunt work along the ropes. Back and forth the geography of the action moved, Maccarinelli leading and landing more while Afolabi began to look almost disinterested. Maccarinelli remained firmly in control in the sixth.
Shoe shining to the body, Afolabi moved his hands more as the seventh unfolded, Afolabi gave Maccarinelli the left hook upstairs presumably in search of room for his own right hand. While he occasionally would get the shot to target, he was taking more than he dished out. The same remained true in round eight but Maccarinelli’s mouth was noticeably widening, suggesting fatigue.
Afolabi must have noticed. Still fighting with relaxed posture, Afolabi landed four hard right hands in the first minute of the ninth as the high volume of punches he’d delivered seemed to bring a weight to the arms of Maccarinelli. Stepping back at one point to shake his arms out, the lost step of Maccarinelli created the hole Afolabi had sought again since the third. Another Afolabi right touched the temple of Maccarinelli and he buckled slightly as an uppercut crashed through his guard.
Standing square in the middle of the ring, Maccarinelli shot a missing left jab and wound up with a right which never landed, beaten to the mark by a sailing overhand right from Afolabi which land flush to the face and sent Maccarinelli straight backwards to the floor. Maccarinelli rose at the count of six but found only Jell-O where his legs were supposed to be, stumbling towards the ropes and never facing referee Terry O’Connor who halted the action at 1:50 of round number nine.
It was a disaster for Maccarinelli, who tried to rationalize the devastating win on relative home turf. “I took it for granted, took it too easy…a lack of sparring took its toll.” It was hard to imagine anything better preparing Maccarinelli to take the right hand he did without falling. All of his three losses have come via knockout, two of them in his last three fights. Maccarinelli suggested a deep think about where his future will lead.
For Afolabi, the win makes him an instant player in a steadily exciting weight class topped currently by World Champion Tomasz Adamek.
In the bout’s lone major title fight, 29-year old WBO Jr. Lightweight titlist Nicky Cook (29-2, 16 KO) of Essex in the U.K., found out that keeping a title can be tougher than winning one. Attempting his first defense of the belt he won from Alex Arthur in September 2008, Cook would dropped twice and stopped by 26-year old Roman Martinez (22-0-1, 13 KO) of Puerto Rico in the fourth round on Saturday night.
Cook came forward to start, shooting his jab behind a tighter defense. Martinez would be the one with the first hard blow, a left hook following off a missing right. Cook responded in close with a left to the body and both worked to center ring trading probing lefts. Near the minute mark, Martinez crashed home another hard left hook and again Cook replied by going to his ribs while using his right mitt to pull Martinez forward and pin his head down.
A sweeping left missed for Martinez at the start of round two and the two traded body blows before a Cook right uppercut snapped Martinez’s head back. At the midway point, a right hand for Martinez landed flush to Cook’s face followed near the minute mark with a left to the body and another hard right to Cook’s cheek. It would be the titlist who had final say in the frame, clipping Martinez with a left hook to the chin which sent the challenger stumbling backwards. Pursuing, Cook failed to increase any haze Martinez might be in.
Circling to his left, Cook kept his eyes open for counter opportunities as Martinez gave chase in the third. Both men’s best work came to the body in a tense but tentative three minutes. The pace picked up for the challenger in the fourth as he landed three hard shots to start the round. Mixing the offense high and low, both men fired hooks at close quarters with Cook appearing to land the cleaner fare. Just inside the halfway point, that tide would turn in dramatic fashion.
A Martinez right hand began the end, slashing downwards and bringing just a hint of wobble to Cook’s legs. His back near the ropes, the next landed blow would do more than wobble, a stunning left uppercut to the chin sending Cook to the floor. The titlist bravely rose to beat the referee’s counts but his senses had not returned. Luring Cook to mid-ring, Martinez whipped a left hook into the side of Cook’s head. The blow could be seen from chin to folding knees as Cook went face first towards the floor, only his elbows keeping him from a flat landing. Again Cook would rise, glassy eyed, and referee Dave Parris halted the action at 2:19 of the fourth.
The title win was Martinez’s first bout outside his native Puerto Rico since 2005.
The broadcast opened with local U.K. Jr. Middleweights. Fans who tuned in early got a violent treat thanks to the left hand power, right hand finish, and constant pressure of 24-year old Matthew Hall (22-1, 14 KO) of Manchester. 27-year old Bradley Pryce (27-7, 16 KO) could do nothing but be run over in two rounds. Taking a cue from his hometown’s hero, Ricky Hatton, Hall ripped lefts to the body and hooks to the head, stunning Pryce badly in the first before dropping him in brutal fashion three times to end matters at the bell ending round number two.
Also Televised
Bantamweights: Craig Lyon (6-0, 2 KO) UD4 Anwar Alfadie (0-1)
The card was televised as in the U.S. on pay-per-view, co-promoted by Frank Warren and Don King Productions.
Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com
