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Gottlieb
on Barrera |
Perfect Pacman Workout! And Barrera
Gets Paid $1 Million For 'Training
Session'
By NAT GOTTLIEB
- Senior Staff Writer FightNightNews
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Man, if I had a buck for every story I read this morning which called the Barrera-Juarez fight
"boring," I could switch-up from
Fleischman's to Stoly.
Of course it was boring! Marco Antonio Barrera intentionally turned Rocky Juarez into a high-class sparring partner. He got in 12 solid training rounds and is now in perfect shape for his rematch with Manny Pacquiao early next year. |
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That my fellow scribes, is the story
of Saturday night's fight. Marco put
on an exhibition and got paid $1
million to do it -- and his last name
isn't even Tyson, how about
that!
What, you expected Barrera to mix it up, risk injury and wear and tear on a Rocky Juarez?
Who's he? What belts does he own that he
didn't buy to hold up his pants? Who of any significance has Juarez beaten? Zahir Raheem? Fuhgetaboutit! Barrera at 25 would have gone to war with him for the fun of it. At 32, with 67 fights under his belt, Barrera saves his
"A"-game for "A"-list boxers. Period.
Why do you think Barrera even took this fight anyway? Everybody (including the Juarez camp) who bought into
Barrera's Baloney (big seller in the Latino community) about how he
didn't want to leave any doubts behind on his record should be forced to eat their sandwiches with ketchup. Juarez lost this fight before he even got into the ring. Barrera knew from the minute he offered the rematch he was going to turn it into a boxing exhibition, the kind of
"stay busy" fight he couldn't lose. Did you hear him apologize for not giving fans the brawl they wanted?
In the business of writing about boxing, once in a while you have to step back from the trees to see the forrest. It made zero sense for Barrera, who will likely retire after next year, to do anything that might knock the lustre off his rematch with Pacquiao, just the third person to beat him in 17 years of professional boxing. Legacy, pal.
It's all about tying up loose ends on his record. Ten years from now
nobody's going to recall if Barrera ever fought a guy named Rocky Juarez twice. Pacquiao, Morales, Hamed, Johnny Tapia are names worthy of war stories over beer.
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When Barrera announced he was taking a quick rematch, a red flag should have gone up.
The only other rematches Barrera took came against boxers who had beaten him in their first encounter, Junior Jones and Erik Morales.
Despite what some may think, Juarez did not beat Barrera the first time, it's in the record books, let it go. Marco certainly did, judging by the way he chose to fight. |
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A return match in four short months was the tip-off. The two rematches Barrera had with Morales were each spaced two years after the previous fight. Four months just happened to fit in
Barrera's schedule, figuring the Pacquiao rematch would take place roughly in March.
It was also about earning a chit with Oscar, who for the umpteenth time secured a date with HBO only to bow out and give the network a substitute. Barrera-Juarez is not Oscar vs. Whoever, but
it's also not chopped liver.
When a fighter sees retirement just around the bend, he
doesn't get reckless just to soothe his ego.
It's about dinero, mucho dinero. Pacquiao, assuming he beats Morales in November, will be a huge dinero fight, a retirement gift to squirrel away for the Barrera grandchildren.
Besides the million bucks and the public workout, maybe, just maybe, Marco Antonio Barrera also wanted to fuck with
Pacquiao's mind. Barrera knows that
Manny's two toughest fights were against Juan Manuel Marquez and Morales, who are excellent boxers. Saturday night Barrera filmed a preview tape for Pacquiao, with a message attached: I am going to box circles around you and make your ass look ridiculous.
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