By James Blears

The odds definitely favor Manny Pacquiao, but when the dust of battle clears, Marco Antonio Barrera will be the winner, thanks to a master class of boxing skills.

When they fought the first time, Marco’s head was not together, he was tactically all at sea and paid a really painful price. But Marco possesses the versatility and the wily skills to have learned from that disastrous encounter.

The obvious choice and the safe bet is Manny because he’s reached his ring peak, Marco is past his, and Manny’s bulldozed most of the Mexicans he’s fought. But through that landscape of debris, the blueprint of how to outwit Manny has clearly emerged.

Although Erik performed superbly in his first fight with Manny, the cut from the clash of heads definitely hampered Manny and radically changed the nature of events. The better example is just how Juan Manuel Marquez re-grouped after his near disaster, and then brilliantly boxed to reach a draw, which was as razor thin as a hairline fracture.

There’s seemingly little to choose concerning the preparations for this fight, which have been similarly distracted if you look at the ripples on surface of the whichever side of the pond they chose to stick with. Both chose home advantage.

Manny has had the normal fraught circus like atmosphere at least for a while, in his training camp, and he chose to abandon LA for more familiar surroundings.

Marco, who’s often favored the high altitude of Big Bear, also chose to stick close to his back yard, yet long time trainer and mentor Rudy Perez wasn’t with him.

That said, by now, Marco is old enough to know what to do all on his own, because that’s what he’s going to be, when he faces Manny.

The game plan is to out jab and out box Manny, maintaining taught and tight discipline throughout. It’s a high risk game of roulette, with the emphasis on the Russian version. But unlike Erik Morales who’s superb fighting instincts worked against him, by urging him to retaliate and get involved in a loosing slugfest, Marco’s far to smart to get drawn into that sort of war of attrition. He’ll employ a more conservative battle plan a lost closer to the one which won him plaudits against Naseem Hamed.

Manny likes an intensive training camp. He thrives on a relatively short program to pack it all in, and tune himself up into tip top condition.

In contrast, Marco has been training a very long time for this particular fight, because he needs to be in the best shape of his life to pull off this unlikely victory with a faultless display of artistry. One slip and he risks ending up on the canvass instead of inscribing a signature performance on it, with a farewell swan song performance, which will surprise a lot of people.

Revenge and the thirst it creates are powerful motivators.