Marco Antonio Barrera

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Marco Antonio Barrera Tapia
Statistics
Real name	Marco Antonio Barrera Tapia
Nickname	The Baby-Faced Assassin
Weight	Super Featherweight
Nationality	Mexican
Birth date	January 17, 1974 (age 33)
Birth place	Mexico City, Mexico
Style	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	69
Wins	63
Wins by KO	42
Losses	5
Draws	0
No contests	1

Marco Antonio Barrera Tapia (born January 17, 1974 in Mexico City) is a Mexican professional boxer and former world WBC Super Featherweight champion. Barrera, whose brother Jorge Barrera is also a boxer, had a successful amateur boxing career where he won 55 out of 58 bouts, and then he turned professional. Barrera is a member of an affluent Mexico City family.

An eight time world champion, Barrera is famously known as the The Baby-Faced Assassin.

[edit] Professional Career

Barrera was only 15 years old when he defeated David Felix by a knockout in round two on November 22, 1989. The incident marked the beginning of a 43 fight win streak.

In 1990, Barrera had seven fights, including his first rise in quality opposition, when he beat veteran Ivan Salazar, by a decision in eight rounds. In 1991, he had seven more fights, beating the likes of Abel Hinojosa and Javier Díaz, among others.

Barrera began 1992 by winning his first professional title, beating Justino Suárez by a decision in 12 rounds on April 1 to win the Mexican national Junior Bantamweight championship. He retained the title three times before the end of the year. Internationally, he had two fights that helped raise his ranking among the world's Junior Bantamweight. He beat Abner Barajas by a decision in ten, and former WBO world title challenger Angel Rosario by a knockout in six.

In 1993, Barrera had six fights, winning each. He outpointed Salazar in a rematch, and retained his title against Noe Santillana, among others.

By 1994, Barrera was attending school to become a lawyer but he also continued his boxing career. On April 13, he beat future world champion Carlos Salazar by a ten-round decision in Argentina. He also beat former world champion Eddie Cook before the end of the year.

[edit] First Quest For Championship Glory

Barrera began 1995 by fighting for a world title for the first time: On March 31, he became the WBO's World Super Bantamweight champion by beating Puerto Rico's Daniel Cobrita Jimenez by a decision in 12 rounds at Anaheim, California. By this time, many boxing experts and critics were calling Barrera "Mexico's next Julio César Chávez." He made four defenses before the year was over, including a two round knockout win against future world champion Frankie Toledo, a first round knockout win over Maui Díaz and a twelve round decision win over future world champion Agapito Sanchez.

On February 6, 1996, he fought on the first installment of HBO Boxing's spin-off series HBO Boxing After Dark. He was dropped by former and future world champion Kennedy McKinney, but he rose off the floor to drop McKinney five times and retain the title by a knockout in round twelve of what many observers and viewers called a classic.

[edit] Stumbling Block: Junior Jones

After the McKinney fight, he beat former world champions Jesse Benavides and Orlando Fernandez before suffering his first loss and losing his title to Junior Jones, by a disqualification in round five. While Barrera was sent to the floor in round five by what appeared to be a punch by Jones, he was declared the loser by disqualification and not by knockout because his managers climbed onto the ring to stop the fight.

In 1997, he was given a chance to recover his title, facing Jones in a rematch April 18 in Las Vegas. Barrera lost a close but unanimous decision, however, and retired for a short period of time after that.

[edit] The Comeback Trail

He announced a comeback in 1998, and he started off by beating old rival Angel Rosario, by a knockout in round five. After two more wins, he was given another world title try, once again, by the WBO. On October 31, as part of a Halloween night themed undercard, he became 2 time World Featherweight Champion by defeating Richie Wenton by a knockout in three, winning the WBO's vacant title.

In 1999, he had two title defenses and then he ran intro controversy: On December 18, he beat César Najera in four rounds at California. But upon finding out that Najera was actually a Barrera sparring partner with a losing boxing record, the California State Athletic Commission decided to rule the fight a no contest instead.

The Trilogy , Barrera vs. Morales (left).

Year 2000 brought a few more interesting twists to Barrera's boxing career. In March of that year, he and the WBC's World Super Bantamweight Champion Erik Morales, met at Las Vegas. The WBO approved of the bout as an unification bout but the WBC did not. He and Morales fought in what Ring Magazine named their "Fight of the Year" for the year 2000, and what many critics also consider a classic. Both men threw in excess of 1500 punches throughout the 12 rounds. Although knocking Morales down in the final round by a collision of hips, the referee ruled that a valid knockdown had occurred. Nonetheless, Barrera lost a close split decision. After the fight, the WBO briefly recognized Morales as their world champion. However, in an unprecedented move in boxing history, the WBO decided that in their eyes it was unjustified for Barrera to have lost that fight. The organization ignored the judges' official decision and reinstated Barrera as their World Super Bantamweight Champion. During the rest of the year, he defended the crown three times, beating Acelino Freitas's brother Luiz Freitas by a knockout in round one, former world champion Jesús Salud in six, and he also scored a win over José Luis Valbuena.

Barrera disposed and humiliated Naseem Hamed in their bout in 2001. Hamed later announced his retirement from boxing soon after the fight was over.

Barrera once again moved up in weight in 2001. He fought and defeated British boxer Naseem Hamed for the IBO Featherweight title by a twelve-round decision on April 7. This fight marks something of a watershed in Barrera's career, in that he had previously employed an aggressive strategy of brawling with opponents, dispensing with technical skill. As just such tactics had proven to be the undoing of so many of Hamed's opponents, Barrera shocked the boxing community by fighting on the back foot and in a very technically sound style, utilizing his reach advantage to jab Hamed without being jabbed in return, keeping his guard consistently high, and rotating away from Hamed's feared left hand punch.

Barrera outclassed former world champion, Johnny Tapia (left) in 2001.

Barrera took a long lay-off after that, but in 2002 he met Morales in a rematch, this time for the WBC Featherweight Title . In this fight, the judges awarded Barrera a close decision. In his next defense, he met old friend and former world champion Johnny Tapia on November 7 and beat him by a 12 round unanimous decision.

Barrera got his 60th career win on April 12, 2003, defeating former world champion Kevin Kelley by a knockout in round four to retain the Ring Magazine's World Featherweight title.

[edit] Shocked by Pacquiao

Barrera versus Manny Pacquiao, both fighters traded powerful punches in their bout in 2003.

After dispatching Kelley, Barrera lost by an eleventh-round knockout to former WBC World Flyweight and then IBF Super Bantamweight champion Emmanuel Pacquiao (commonly known as "Manny" Pacquiao), in San Antonio, Texas on November 7. Barrera could not handle Pacquiao's southpaw stance and blazing hand speed. Pacquiao dominated Barrera, knocking him down several times until Barrera's corner stopped the bout. Many thought Barrera was done as a fighter. Shortly before this fight, it was revealed that in 1997 Barrera had undergone a brain surgery to remove an abnormal vein, and a metal plate had been installed to cover the area on his skull that was operated on.

[edit] Bouncing Back after Pacquiao Fight

In his next fight, on June 19 of 2004, Barrera faced former two time World Bantamweight champion Paulie Ayala in Los Angeles. Barrera won the fight by a tenth round knockout, easily out-boxing Ayala.

Once and for All, Barrera finally defeats Erik Morales (left) with out controversy and wins the WBC Super Fearherweight Title in 2004.

On November 27, he and Morales met for the third time. Barrera became a three division world champion by defeating Morales by a majority decision, while also taking a 2-1 lead in their particular series of fights. The third Barrera-Morales encounter was nicknamed "Once and for All." With this win Barrera had regained his credibility after his shocking loss to Pacquiao and had finally beaten Morales clearly and without controversy.

On April 9, 2005, Barrera retained the WBC Super Featherweight title with a second round knockout over Mzonke Fana in El Paso, Texas.

On September 17 of the same year, he unified his WBC Super Featherweight title with the IBF World Junior Lightweight title version by defeating the IBF world champion Robbie Peden by a twelve round unanimous decision, in Las Vegas.

[edit] Barrera vs. Juárez Controversy

On May 20, 2006, Barrera successfully defended his title against Rocky Juárez with what was announced immediately after the fight as a twelve-round draw, which the judges scored 115-113, 113-115, and 114-114. However, tabulation errors were found in the judges' scorecards, leading to a final score of 115-114, 114-115, and 115-114, a split decision in favor of Barerra. Because a champion retains his title in the case of a draw, Barrera's status as WBC Super Featherweight champion was unaffected. Although not required by contract, Barrera and Juarez met in a rematch on September 16, this time Barrera winning comfortably on points through a unanimous decision (117-111, 115-113, 115-113).

[edit] Losing the Title

On March 17, 2007 Barrera lost his WBC Super Featherweight title to fellow Mexican Juan Manuel Márquez by unanimous decision. Though Barrera claimed that the judges and referee were wrong, because he knocked down Marquez in the 7th, and the referee ruled it a slip.^[1]

[edit] Outside the Ring

Barrera is managed by Ricardo Maldonado, who also manages Puerto Rican world champion boxers Alex El Nene Sánchez and Daniel Santos. Barrera's fights are promoted by Oscar De La Hoya under the flag of Golden Boy Promotions. He trains at De La Hoya's training facility in Big Bear, California.

[edit] Record

Barrera's record consists of 69 fights, 63 wins, 5 losses, and 1 no-contest, with 42 wins by knockout.

[edit] See also

• Barrera versus Morales trilogy
• List of male boxers
• List of notable boxing rivalries
• List of WBC world champions
• The Boxing Times - World Rankings
• Notable boxing families
• Reigning boxing champions
• Ring Magazine pound for pound (#6)
• Fight Night Round 3

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Marco Antonio Barrera Fight-by-Fight Career Record
• HBO: Fighters: Marco Antonio Barrera Article
• Marco Antonio Barrera Career Record
• Marco Antonio Barrera Official Website