By Mark Vester
The controversy continues over Marco Antonio Barrera's bout with Freudis Rojas from last Saturday night in Jalisco, Mexico. Barrera won the fight by way of a third round disqualification after Rojas speared him with his head, causing a cut above Barrera's left eye.
Rojas was a late replacement and a very unpopular one. During Barrera's hometwon bout, there were chants of "fraud" by the crowd. Coming in with a record of 1-7, while Barrera was sporting a record of 64-6 - many in the Mexican press called the fight criminal.
Barrera tried to defend the fight going forward after the original opponent Johnny Nolasco no-showed the weigh-in.
"I was uncomfortable with the kind of opponent he was and I respect what the people were shouting. But this was a fight. So many opponents don't come to fight. They come to lay down. In this case they saw a fight. We wanted to return to Guadalajara, a city where I've seen my family grow and spent a lot of year here," Barrera told Notifight. "Nobody is guilty of anything here. I'm not and neither are the promoters. There was nothing scripted. They wanted to do something to save the event and I also wanted to save the event."
There are reports in the Mexican press that Rojas, who was inactive since 2007, tried to get a license to box in California in 2008 - and was denied because of his experience and poor record.
While the press in the UK report that Barrera had to receive three stitches for the cut he suffered, Jorge Barrera (Marco's brother) told media members in Mexico that Marco received 14 stitches. Barrera has a fight scheduled with Amir Khan on March 14 at the MEN Arena in Manchester, England. Both sides expect the fight to go forward, but there is still talk of the card being pushed back. Barrera is flying to Florida to have an expert determine if the cut can fully heal in time to make the Khan date.
If the worst come to the worst, we will put it back a couple of weeks," Warren said. "But I am hopeful it will go ahead on March 14."
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