By Sammy Rozenberg
 
It was a wild night of boxing at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada. They expected to see a war in the main event, but instead got a boxing exhibition as the undercard bouts stole the show.
 
The first fight was "too close to call," but the rematch was not even close. Marco Antonio Barrera (63-4, 42 KOs) retained his WBC super featherweight title by jabbing Rocky Juarez (25-3, 18 KOs) on route to an easy unanimous twelve round decision. The scores were a lot closer than the fight appeared to be. One judge had it right with a score of 117-111, but the two scores of 115-113 were puzzling.
 
From the start of the fight, Barrera controlled the fight with his jab and never let Juarez get a rhythm going throughout their encounter.
 
Juarez's eye began to swell bad from the hard jabs of Barrera. There were moments in the fight where Juarez would land a decent punch to the head or body, but he never threw combinations and always landed one punch at a time.
 
The crowd was unhappy as they rained plenty of boos on both fighters for the lack of action, but it was clearly Juarez who did not push the issue. Even when Barrera would stop punching and take off a round, there was no aggression on the part of Juarez.
 
The corner of Juarez urged him round after round to step it up, and unfortunately he disregarded their instructions.
 
The old veteran in Barrera fought a slow paced boxing match, not because of his overall edge in his level of experience, but because Juarez let him.
 
Barrera said that he plans to retire in 2007, in order to spend more time at home.
 
"I want to retire next year. In 2007 I say goodbye. I want to spend more time with my son," Barrera said.
 
The career of Barrera will not be complete unless he sets up a rematch with the man who demolished him in 2003, Manny Pacquiao. Barrera said that he was willing to face Pacquiao one more time, but his promoter Oscar De La Hoya is in charge of his future opponents.
 
"Manny Pacquiao is the best fight for me. Pacquiao is really good, punches hard and is very fast," noted Barrera.
 
On the undercard:
 
WBC super bantamweight champion Israel Vazquez (41-3, 30 KOs) stopped WBO bantamweight champion Jhonny Gonzalez (33-5, 28 KOs) in tenth round of a wild fight.
 
For the first half of the fight, Gonzalez dominated and knocked Vazquez down in the fourth round, and the sixth. After the sixth round, Vazquez began to dominate with much harder punches to knock down Gonzalez in the seventh and tenth rounds.
 
Gonzalez was able to get back to his feet after the tenth round, but his trainer Oscar Suarez threw in the towel as he felt Gonzalez was in serious trouble.
 
At the time of the stoppage, Gonzalez was up by all three judges with scores of 86-82, 85-83 and 85-83.
 
Joan Guzman (26-0, 17 KOs), in his first bout at the super featherweight limit of 130 pounds, scored a twelve round split-decision over Jorge Barrios (46-3-1, 33 KOs) to win the vacant WBO super featherweight title. The scores were a lot closer than most saw the fight. 114-113 for Barrios, 114-113 for Guzman and 115-112 for Guzman.
 
Guzman came out in the opening round throwing bombs, Barrios returned fire with his own power punches. Both fighters were rocked in the first round and never stopped trying to go to war for the entire fight. Guzman's hand speed and boxing skills were the difference as he was able to get off better with his punches, and also showed a strong chin by taking the punches of Barrios.
 
Barrios made the body of Guzman his primary target for most of the fight, doing damage with relentless body punching. In the sixth round, Barrios lost a questionable point for a borderline shot to the body, that the referee felt was too low. Feeling that he was behind on points, Barrios tried to rally down the stretch, but was unable to gain the knockout before the final bell.
 
Prior to the bout, Barrios lost the WBO title for being unable to make the 130 pound weight limit. He weighed in 131 1/2 pounds at Friday's weigh-in. If he would have won the fight, the title would have been vacant. Barrios is likely to move up to the lightweight limit of 135 pounds.
 
Undefeated junior welterweight prospect Jorge Paez, Jr. (11-0, 7 KOs) won a close majority decision over Derrick Campos (6-3, 5 KOs). Campos came out strong in the first round and rocked Paez. In the second, Paez came back with hard punches that sent Campos to the canvas. After winning the third round, Paez appeared flat in the fourth and final round. Campos came out in the fourth like a man on a mission and began to unload with hard punches. In the final ten seconds, Campos caught Paez with a power punch that sent the unbeaten prospect to the floor. Paez was able to beat the count, but was lucky the knockdown came in the final ten seconds as he appeared to be out on his feet.
 
Final scores were 37-37 for a draw, 38-36, 38-36 for Paez.
 
Miguel Reza (3-1) defeated Sergio Mendez  (4-3) with a four round majority decision, Mendez found himself in a hole early when a point was deducted in the second round due to a clash of heads.
 
It was an uphill climb for Mendez from that point on. Although he didn't capture the third round, it was Reza who was the more active of the two. In the end, two of the three judges had Reza winning.
 
Judge Robert Doyle had it a shutout at 40-36 Mendez, Patricia Jarman had it 39-37 Medez, with Judge Dalby Shirley scoring it a draw at 38-38.
 
Anthony Martinez almost decapitated Leon Green, landing a vicious left hook to the jaw of Green that had him out cold before he hit the canvas. Referee Jay Nady didn't bother to count, stopping the fight at 1:14 of the second round.
 
After a close first round, which both fighter had brief moments, Martinez opened up in the second round, landing left hooks to the head and body before landing the shot that ended he night and gave him the victory in his pro-debut, Green fell 1-1.
 
Euri Gonzales remained unbeaten with a closer than scored fight, winning a split decision over game Juan Pablo Montes De Oca. Gonzales was the better skilled fighter in landing quick flurries, while De Oca kept coming forward, but not landing with the majority of his punches.
The only excitement came in the third round when both fighters were deducted a point for fouls; Gonzales for an elbow and De Oca for hitting low.
 
The judges were split at 58-54 & 57-55 for Gonzales, while the third had it for De Oca 57-55.
 
Gonzales raises his record to 12-0, while De Oca falls to 8-10-2.
 
Scotsman Craig McEwan halted overmatched George Montalvo at 2:18 of the first round. The fight was a mismatch from the opening bell as McEwan used Montalvo as a punching bag, landing everything he threw before referee Robert Byrd halted the slaughter as Montalvo was hanging on for life.
 
McEwan who had over 350 amateur fights, wins in his pro-debut. Montalvo falls to 1-4.
 
In the opening fight of the night, I hardly had a chance to set up my computer, due to Henry Crawford landing a huge punch right off the bat, stopping Adam Wynant in :12 seconds of the first round. Referee Robert Byrd didn't bother to count as Crawford raised his record to 12-0-1 (5 KOs), while Wynant falls to 12-5-1.