by David P. Greisman
A teenager who became a fighter. A champion who lost twice in a row. A loser who learned how to box. A boxer who became a legend. To describe Marco Antonio Barrera’s lengthy career is to adapt the tagline to “Gladiator.”
In a manner, Barrera is like Russell Crowe, an award-winning actor who has shown versatility and talent by taking on various roles. For each of Barrera’s incarnations, he has simultaneously endured reincarnation, retooling his career nearly as many times as another warrior who helped launch HBO’s Boxing After Dark ten years ago, Arturo Gatti.
In early 1996, Barrera’s stoppage of Kennedy McKinney – followed a month later by Gatti’s knockout of Wilson Rodriguez – established expectations of excitement from both fighters. But while Gatti prolonged his career by wearing the costume of a boxer, without fail he would revert to brawling. Barrera, in contrast, evolved into a more complete pugilist, cognizant of the idea that knowing the right times to stand and trade is part of the art of war.
“The art of war is of vital importance to the state,” Sun Tzu said in, well, The Art of War. “It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence under no circumstances can it be neglected.”
After losing a controversial split decision to Erik Morales in 2000, Barrera rejuvenated his career a year later with a shocking boxing clinic against Naseem Hamed, embarrassing the showy puncher by exhibiting focus and technical superiority.
In the years since, Barrera became a three-division titlist, garnering accolades and a strong argument for Hall of Fame induction while losing only once to Manny Pacquiao. With more than half of his life spent as a professional boxer, the time to retire was nearing, and the possibility of diminished capability leading to someone younger, stronger and hungrier defeating him became more likely.
Rocky Juarez was nearly the man to do it.
In their May bout, Barrera started off strong while Juarez endured his typical cautious beginning. The second half of the fight, however, was a different story, as Juarez increased his volume, caught Barrera with his power and left “The Babyfaced Assassin” bloodied and oh-so-barely victorious.
If their fight showed that Juarez had finally arrived, it also indicated Barrera’s imminent departure. Had Barrera chosen to finish his career on his own terms instead of giving Juarez a rematch, few would have blamed him, but a prideful warrior doesn’t avoid battle, even when the opponent is capable and dangerous.
The wise warrior, though, knows how to keep himself safe by rendering his foe offensively impotent: “Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.”
Utilizing an accurate jab, effective counterpunching and exceptional footwork, Barrera kept the advantage by rarely letting Juarez get inside where he could land cleanly. The jabs and counters forced Juarez – a left-hooker whose approach is hampered by stiff interruptions – to attempt power shots from a distance where they are more easily avoided, and Barrera’s leftward circling eliminated most of the danger from Juarez’ most dangerous weapon.
“The general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes few calculations beforehand.”
Motivated by May’s near-loss, Barrera made the choice to adapt while Juarez, encouraged by the previous fight’s successes, did not. Instead of increasing his punch output like in their first go-around, Juarez remained steady but not stellar, never going for broke due to a lack of opportunities to cash in on.
“If he is in superior strength, evade him,” Tzu dictated. “The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy.”
Barrera, a great fighter of old, beat Juarez a lot easier than the 115-113 scores on two of the three judges’ scorecards indicated, tallies demonstrating a continued trend of favoring aggressiveness that may not truly be effective. Had the judges looked closer they would have noticed Juarez’ puffed-up right eye, his failure to get into second gear and his defeated demeanor during and after the fight.
“Barrera didn’t come to fight today,” Juarez told Larry Merchant in a post-fight interview. “He came to box, and he fought a better fight than he did that first time.”
Neither Juarez nor the booing fans may have liked Barrera’s strategy, but it led to victory. Instead of dazzling the audience with violence in motion, he painted a boxing masterpiece, another composition crafted through the art of war.
The 10 Count
1. The last time Marco Antonio Barrera headlined a pay-per-view was one year ago, when Barrera outpointed Robbie Peden to unify two junior lightweight titles. Of more importance, however, is the anniversary of the death of Leavander Johnson, who died five days after losing to Jesus Chavez on the Barrera-Peden undercard.
Johnson wasn’t the first fighter to die from injuries sustained in the ring, nor was he the last. Nevertheless, it’s still important that everyone from the pundits to the promoters remember the sacrifices made by Johnson and far too many others.
Please pardon the apparent soapbox moment, but in this case I felt it was absolutely worthwhile.
2. Perhaps reacting to criticism of their handling of the Diego Corrales-Jose Luis Castillo III weigh-in fiasco, the World Boxing Council announced last week that Marco Antonio Barrera, Rocky Juarez, Israel Vazquez and Jhonny Gonzalez had not fulfilled their required weigh-ins for 30 and seven days prior to this past weekend’s pay-per-view card.
Yet soon after their initial announcement, the WBC followed up with another: “[T]he only fighter to be penalized for his noncompliance of the WBC Regulations will be Rocky Juarez. Juarez was the only one to violate our rules regarding weight control, but not because we made mistakes in our communications, as he had already been informed.”
From the sound of their press release, it appears as if the WBC still does not have an effective manner of monitoring the weights of fighters contending for their titles, and that it is the responsibility of the fighters and their camps to provide the pugilist’s poundage to a sanctioning body that seems either impotent or impractical.
Also inducing curiosity is the last sentence: “The WBC has been always [sic] very careful and respectful towards the promotions staged by Oscar De La Hoya, world champion and head of Golden Boy Promotions.”
3. Maybe the WBO should make like the WBC and institute a weigh-in policy that is as toothless as drug testing in most major American sports.
At Friday’s weigh-in for his WBO junior lightweight title defense against Joan Guzman, Jorge Barrios tipped the scales at 132 pounds, 2 pounds over the division’s limit. On his second attempt, Barrios was 131.5 pounds, forcing the sanctioning body to strip him of the belt.
The fight went on nonetheless, and Guzman won Barrios’ belt via a controversial split decision. In the sixth round, referee Vic Drakulich – who some observers have described as officious – docked one point from Barrios, perhaps undeservingly, for a low blow. The deduction gave Guzman a 114-113 edge on a scorecard that otherwise would have been even, allowing Barrios to retain with a split draw.
Coincidentally, Barrios had won his belt in May 2005 by stopping a Mike Anchondo who, like Barrios, lost his title at the scales.
4. Sticking with the weight theme, Hector Camacho Jr. knocked out George Klinesmith on Thursday in a fight that should never have occurred.
Although promoter Dan Goossen originally billed Camacho-Klinesmith as a junior middleweight fight, Camacho weighed in two divisions north at 167 pounds while Klinesmith was 159.5. In addition to the tremendous discrepancy between weights, Klinesmith is generally a tomato can of a designated opponent and Camacho, for all of the proper criticism, was levels of talent beyond his opponent.
To his credit, Camacho was quoted by reporters following the fight as saying, “[I]t’s a win, but I wasn’t satisfied. I expected a lot more of a challenge.”
5. Taking the comeback path that Riddick Bowe needed, Joe Mesi appeared Friday in his fourth fight in five months, taking a four-round decision against Jason Weiss.
Mesi has won all four bouts since returning from a forced (but proper) two-year layoff caused by concern over the subdural hematomas he suffered in a March 2004 victory over Vassiliy Jirov (whose first name I misspelled last week). But despite keeping his undefeated record intact, Mesi has merely been able to work himself back into better shape without necessarily shaking off the remainder of his ring rust. If a relative neophyte like the 3-1 Weiss can dish out enough damage to swell up Mesi’s eye, what will happen against a heavyweight with experience and/or true power?
6. So, how about a rematch between Israel Vazquez and Jhonny Gonzalez?
7. HBO Boxing’s troubled Oct. 14 broadcast date is back on, as the network will broadcast Joe Calzaghe defending his super middleweight titles against Sakio Bika. While, for some reason, HBO is airing Calzaghe-Bika on Boxing After Dark, perhaps the network should change the title to Boxing After It’s Done, as Calzaghe-Bika will be shown via tape delay from Manchester, and multiple reports have HBO showing either extended highlights or the entirety of that day’s Mikkel Kessler-Markus Beyer 168-lb. unification battle from Denmark.
8. Duva Drama, Minto Mess: In multiple recent press releases, Brian Minto and his publicist have mentioned the heavyweight’s supposed upcoming free agency, rankling feathers with his promoter, Duva Boxing.
After losing to an ancient Tony Tubbs in December 2004, Minto rattled off eight straight victories, gaining exposure with shows on ESPN2 and the Antonio Tarver-Roy Jones III undercard. As such, Minto may feel that his career of late has stalled momentarily, and thus he is looking to get beyond the status of an entertaining club-level heavyweight. But issuing press releases that ask for big fights and upset one’s promoter are not the way to go. Unless the disagreement over free agency is quickly resolved, both Minto and Duva Boxing may end up unhappily unable to capitalize on the fighter’s recent winning streak.
9. “Boxing Safety, Fighting Irish” Update: Tommy Zbikowski had eight tackles and returned one punt for four yards in a 47-21 Notre Dame loss to the Michigan Wolverines. It was a bad day for Zbikowski to be a member of the Notre Dame defense, as the Michigan offense scored five touchdowns, dominated in time of possession and took away Notre Dame’s undefeated record and high ranking. Now 2-1, the Fighting Irish will look to regain their momentum this Saturday against the 3-0 Michigan State Spartans.
10. The Contender Update: Two weeks left in season two. Two more quarterfinal fights to determine the two semifinal bouts that will produce the final two remaining contestants on The Contender, Mark Burnett’s boxing reality show.
This week, Grady Brewer outpointed Michael Stewart and Norberto Bravo took a five-round decision over Gary Balletto. With their wins, Brewer and Bravo join Cornelius Bundrage and Steve Forbes in the semifinals, and next week’s victors will advance to the Sept. 26 live season finale.