By Dr. Peter Edwards (photo by HBO Sports)
After eight months of inactivity, WBC super featherweight champion Marco Antonio Barrera (61-4, 42KOs) returns to the ring against former Olympian Rocky Juarez (25-1, 18KOs) in the Staples Center located in Los Angeles, California.
There were several twists and turns which created the long layoff for Barrera. Originally, Barrera was slated to face WBC lightweight champion Jesus Chavez. The bout was heavily publicized as Barrera was moving up in weight to become the first Mexican fighter to win titles in four weight divisions. The bout was unexpectedly called off due to an injury suffered by Chavez while training.
After Chavez was off the table, Barrera turned his attentions to undefeated WBA lightweight champion Juan Diaz. Unfortunately, the Diaz fight was unable to come off and Barrera decided to stay at the super featherweight limit. Several weeks later, an opportunity to fight Barrera was presented to once-beaten Rocky Juarez, who accepted what could be his biggest opportunity to get his name back in the limelight.
Ironically, Juarez was helping Jesus Chavez prepare for Marco Antonio Barrera before the bout was cancelled.
It was not that long ago when Rocky Juarez was one of the most highly regarded prospects in the sport. The amateur background of Juarez is beyond impressive. In 1996, he won a gold medal in both the Junior Olympics National Championships and the Junior Olympics World Championships. In 1997, he won the Muhammad Ali Cup, a bronze medal at the U.S. Championships and won the Under-19 U.S. National Championships. In 1998, he won the National PAL Championships. In 1999, he earned a gold medal at the World Championships and in 2000, Juarez won the award for "Outstanding Boxer" at the Olympic Trials.
Juarez officially turned pro in January of 2001, registering a four round decision over Pascali Adorno. The next few years were easy riding for Juarez as he walked over most of his opponents with two-fisted punishment. Quality wins over Joe Morales, Zahir Raheem, Guty Espadas, Jr. and Juan Carlos Ramirez raised his profile above most of the other up and coming prospects in the sport.
Last August, Juarez was finally going to get his first major shot at a world championship by facing the always tough Injin Chi in a high profile televised event on HBO. Two weeks before the fight, Chi pulled out with an injury and the much larger Humberto Soto took the bout at the last minute. Soto, a naturally much larger fighter, showed his physical advantages as he out-muscled the smaller Juarez.
Juarez, admittedly not mentally prepared for the bout as he was disappointed over losing the opportunity to face Injin Chi, was upset over twelve rounds by the unheralded Soto. In the Soto bout, Juarez was not busy enough with his jab and unable to put the proper combinations together to keep Soto at bay. Since the Soto loss, Juarez has won two bouts by knockout.
Unlike Juarez, Barrera has been able to bring his career back from the basement after suffering a one-sided beating at the hands of Manny Pacquiao in 2003. Since the loss to Pacquiao, Barrera has won four straight, including wins over Erik Morales, Paulie Ayala and most recently Robbie Peden.
Juarez will be Barrera's first live opponent since Erik Morales, which he beat by decision in a fight of the year battle in November of 2004. The bout with Juarez has the makings of a very competitive bout as Juarez can take a punch, packs a very hard punch and possesses enough boxing skills to make up for other flaws.
The bout with Barrera will be the first for Juarez at the super featherweight limit and many think the climb in weight will be too much for him to handle. The idea of the weight being an issue is based on Juarez's loss to Soto, but Barrera is not a natural super featherweight and physically smaller than Soto. On the other hand, Barrera is still physically bigger than Juarez and has been able to beat some of the best fighters in his current weight class.
This fight simply comes down to experience and level of activity. Barrera is far more experienced than Juarez and his punch output is superior to the number of punches Juarez usually throws during the course of a bout. If Juarez has any hope of winning this fight, he will have to be extremely busy in every single round.
Juarez was thrown in the mix as a stepping stone to much bigger things for Barrera and I'm sure Juarez is well aware of that fact. I expect Juarez to be up for this fight, but the experience and more importantly the work rate of Barrera, is far too much for the 26-year-old to overcome at this stage of his career. Barrera has more career knockouts than the total number of fights on Juarez's record and fought in almost three times the amount of bouts.
As long as he makes a good account of himself, a loss to Barrera will not be a black eye on his record, especially when you consider that Juarez has never come close to facing a fighter near the level of someone like Barrera. As for Barrera, a fight already penciled in for November gives a good indication of how confident he is of winning this fight.
