The Baby-Faced Assassin: Marco Antonio Barrera

Marco Antonio Barrera was born on January 17th, 1974, and contrary to the popular image of boxers coming from impoverished backgrounds, the Barreras were a solidly middle class Mexican family. Along with his brother Jorge, Barrera took to boxing as a child and soon became a star in Mexico's amateur boxing circuit. He went 104-4 and won 5 Mexican national championships. All of these bouts were as a mere schoolboy, however. Barrera turned pro at the age of 15, starting his pro career as a flyweight.

Barrera might have been young, but he was fierce and talented. In April 1992, in his 17th pro fight, an 18 year old Barrera captured the Mexican super flyweight title (115 lbs) by Unanimous Decision. He held onto that title for two years, until he entered an match to earn #1 contender's status for the WBC world title. While he won a closely fought contest, Barrera had failed to make the weight limit by 1 1/4 lbs, and therefore the #1 contender's status went to his opponent by default. As if his boxing career was not enough, Barrera was also studying law at this time. Unable to make 115 lbs anymore, Barrera continued his pugilistic campaign at bantamweight (118 lbs) and then super bantamweight (122 lbs). In March 1995, he became an undefeated world champion at the age of 21 when he won the WBO Super Bantamweight Title.

Boxing After Dark
Barrera defended his title 4 times with 3 knockouts before meeting his first real contender, a solid fighter names Kenned McKinney. At that point in his career, McKinney had lost only once, to the tough, ever-underrated Vuyani Bungu. In what was the first of what would prove to be many thrilling toe-to-toe wars, and the first broadcast of HBO's series Boxing After Dark, Barrera prevailed in a style that solidified his standing as a sports star in Mexico, and served notice of his prowess to a larger American audience. McKinney was outboxing Barrera through the first half of the fight, but then Barrera came on, found his range, and made a slugfest of it. McKinney went to the canvas twice in the 8th and once in the 9th, Somehow, McKinney got up and found the strength to knock Barrera down in the 11th. Barrera got up, recovered, and knocked McKinney down twice more in the 12th, leading the referee to stop the fight. After that blood-and-guts performance, many looked to Marco Antonio Barrera as the heir to aging legend Julio Cesar Chavez, the anointed king of Mexican boxing.

Marco Antonio Barrera stood 5'6" with a 70" reach. He was best known for his take-no-prisoners approach to boxing, turning up the pressure and throwing plenty of hard shots in an effort to break his opponent down and knock him out. However, Barrera was also a talented boxer. He had a good jab, could show good defense when he wanted to, and was therefore capable of both beating down and outboxing opponents.

Dethroned
Barrera made another 3 title defenses against journeymen, and then in November 1996 met another serious American contender in the form of Junior Jones. Jones was a former bantamweight champ, and a tall, rangy boxer-puncher. His career showed the spotty performances of an underachiever, but on that night he came with his best and he came to win. Jones sharpshot Barrera, knocked him down twice in the 5th, and was stopped from getting a knockout only because Barrera's corner jumped into the ring. Instead of losing by knockout, Barrera lost by disqualification. His 43 fight winning streak and 8 defense title reign had come to and end.

In April 1997, the Baby-Faced Assassin and Jones met in a rematch. It was fast-paced and hotly contested, but the judges gave the nod to Junior Jones in a close decision.

Six months later, Barrera was back in the ring. By April 1999, he had recaptured his WBO title (it had since been lost by the inconsistent Jones). In the meantime, however, a new Mexican champion had emerged on the scene. His name was Erik Morales.

The Trilogy
35-0, Tijuana-born Erik Morales was the WBC 122 lbs champion. After losing some of his luster in the two losses to Jones, Mexicans began to think of Morales as being the possible heir to the legacy of the great JC Chavez. As if that were not enough to base a rivalry on, Barrera was a scion of the middle class who had gone to law school, while Morales was from the ghettos of Tijuana, adding class animosity to the mix. The two men quickly grew to despise one another.

They met in February 2000. It was a bitterly fought war, and Barrera scored the fight's only knockdown in the 12th. Despite that, it was Morales who prevailed, winning a close Split Decision. As Morales vacated his titles and went to featherweight (126 lbs) shortly thereafter, the WBO gave Barrera his belt back.

Having lost to Jones and Morales, Barrera was no longer looking like quite such a world-beater. Undefeated featherweight king Naseem Hamed, a flashy puncher from Britain, had been taking a lot of (largely unjustified) criticism for ducking good fighters in their prime, and fighting only faded former or current champions. To quiet he critics, Hamed chose to fight Barrera, who was certainly young and in his prime, but didn't look like the most dangerous opponent on the field. In April 2001, Barrera proved "The Prince" wrong, and put on a savage display of tightly controlled boxing. Barrera stepped in, found Hamed with short, sharp combinations, and moved out before Hamed could bring his incredible power to bear. Although Barrera lost a point for slamming Hamed's head into a turnbuckle, he took a beating and lost his "0" and his title. Marco Antonio Barrera was back.

That win led to a June 2002 rematch with Erik Morales, now 41-0 and wearing the WBC's Featherweight Title. Avoiding his usual aggressive tactics, Barrera boxed Morales early on. Morales, who was also a talented boxer, failed to respond in kind and lost much of the early going. It wasn't until after mid-fight that Morales's aggression started finding traction and forced the action. A fight broke out, but once again Barrera did just a bit better in the exchanges. He won a close, but Unanimous Decision. Morales went back to his dressing room in tears, as he had lost his title, his undefeated status, and his hated rival had evened the score on him.

Morales followed up his big win over Morales with two solid victories over faded "name" opponents: a big points win over Johnny Tapia and a knockout over Kevin Kelley. Then in November 2003, he met a rising Filipino by the name of Manny Pacquiao. It looked like it might be an early night, as Barrera put Pacquiao down in the 1st. "Pacman" soon came back, however, and using his later trademarked combination of speed and power, he knocked down in the 3rd and 11th. By the closing rounds of the fight, Barrera was taking a beating and had no answers, so his corner threw in the towel. Barrera would later blame his poor showing on a pre-fight surgery, and the fire that torched his original training site and interrupted his regimen. Both of those claims were true and certainly had an impact, but just as important was that Marco Antonio Barrera was then a 57-3 veteran of 14 years of boxing.

Barrera came back and knocked out Paulie Ayala, and in November 2004 he met his old rival Erik Morales, now the WBC Super Featherweight (130 lbs) champion. Many thought Barrera was shopworn, but he proved them wrong when he came out and tried to clobber Morales. For the first half of the fight, Barrera came on with punches in bunches, even breaking Morales's nose in the 2nd, and Morales mostly gave ground, boxed, and waited for Barrera to tire. By the middle of the bout, it became clear that Barrera would not punch himself out, so Morales came back and started raking Barrera with aggressive, outside potshots. Barrera responded by turning up the pressure. It became clear to all that to win the fight, Morales would need to sweep the final rounds. A toe-to-toe battle ensued, with neither man giving an inch. Barrera won again, but this time on a narrow Majority Decision. Barrera had won the rubber match, and stood 2-1 over his bitter enemy.

Fading Away
Barrera came off his triumph with a string of wins. However, his first victory over Rocky Juarez was harder than it should have been, even though Barrera did much better in the re-match.

In March 2007, Barrera fought Juan Manuel Marquez. Marquez at that point in his career had been toiling in relative obscurity, and his only big fight to date had been his fabled Draw with Manny Pacquiao. It was a tactical, but action-packed fight, with the skills of both men on full display. Far from being "done," Barrera hotly contested the first two rounds, but then Marquez took Rounds 3 through 5. In the 7th, Marquez rocked Barrera, but the Baby Faced Assassin came back and knocked Marquez down. Before the referee could intervene, however, Barrera clocked Marquez while he was down on all fours. Instead of getting a point for a knockdown, Barrera lost one for a foul. The rest of the bout was closely fought. The scorecards gave the fight to Marquez by a huge margin. Most ringside observers agreed Marquez had done enough to win, but not by such a lopsided score.

The loss to Marquez led directly to an October re-match with Marquez's arch-rival, Manny Pacquiao. Pacman easily defeated Barrera, who indicated he might retire after the bout. Instead he moved up to lightweight (135 lbs), and after a couple of tune-ups fought rising British star Amir Khan in March 2009. Barrera was perhaps hoping to repeat his trajectory-altering win over Hamed from almost 8 years before. Instead, an accidental head butt in the 2nd opened a huge gash on Barrera's forehead, which led to the fight being stopped in the 5th. As Khan was ahead on the cards, he won a Technical Decision.

Marco Antonio Barrera has a 65-7 record with 43 KOs, and remains an active boxer today.

Sources: boxrec.com; hbo.com/boxing/fighters/barrera_marco/bio.html; thesweetscience.com/boxing-article/5404/barrera-douse-pacman-fire/; articles.latimes.com/2004/jun/18/sports/sp-boxing18; live fight footage; The Ring