By Mark Vester

At the MEN Arena in Manchester, Amir Khan (20-1, 15KOs) dominated Marco Antonio Barrera (65-7, 43KOs) to win a unanimous technical five round decision to capture the WBA International and WBO Inter-Continental lightweight titles. The scores were 50-44, 50-45 and 50-45 for Khan.

Khan came out pressing Barrera and throwing some quick punches. Khan was beating Barrera to the punch, using his quicker hands to land punches well to the head. There was a clash of heads that opened up a deep cut on Barerra's forehead. The cut may have been the same one that Barrera suffered during his January tuneup. Once he saw the flow of blood, Khan began to batter Barrera with some heavy fire from both hands for the final minute. Barrera took a minor beating in the first.

In the second, Khan went back on the attack as Barrera's face was a bloody mess. Barrera was pawing at the blood that was flowing into his eye. Khan kept pushing forwad with those quick hands. Barrera seemed to have no answers for Khan's speed. During the third, Khan was backing Barrera up often and unloading with some very fast combinations. Barrera's cut continued to flow heavy all over the place. Barrera could not see Khan's punches coming and was taking a beating.

Some hard left by Khan seemed to shake Barrera in the fourth. The ref called a halt to the action for the doctor to take a look at the cut. The fight almost seemed to be over but the doctor did not stop it as Barrera wanted to go on and the action resumed. Barrera was trying to get in some shots. He couldn't catch up to the quicker Khan who was peppering him with heavy fire in return.

Khan seemed to be going for the kill in the fifth, stalking a bloody Barrera and trying to close the show with fast power punch combinations. The ref called to the action again for the doctor to take a look at the cut on Barrera once again. At that point the fight was stopped when Barrera indicated that he could no longer go on and the doctor felt the cut was way too bad to allow the bout to continue.

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