He's back: Barrera signs with Don King

by Scott Christ on Sep 1, 2008 12:55 AM EDT

ESPN's Dan Rafael is reporting that former three-division titlist Marco Antonio Barrera will end his brief "retirement" and has signed with faded promoter Don King. The deal is for five years. Barrera is currently 34.

Barrera hasn't fought since last October, when he lost an uninspiring decision to Manny Pacquiao, seven months after a loss against Juan Manuel Marquez in an excellent, hotly-contested fight that some felt Barrera won.

It's a mystery, really, how many -- if any -- good years that Marco Antonio has left. He plans to move up to 135 pounds, and King could present him with a fight between the winner of Campbell-Guzman if he sees fit, and he likely will.

Honestly, though, King is so past his prime as a promoter (despite some great ideas like the internet shows) and does so few shows that I'm surprised Marco Antonio went this route. But King is known and probably gave him a good money offer. Rafael suspects that King could also match Barrera with Yusuke Kobori or Paulus Moses, who will scrap this fall.

It's never a bad thing for a living legend like Barrera to be in the sport, really, but I do wonder if he can make the move to 135 at this age. It won't be easy, and with King, there are no guarantees about marketable fights or TV placement in the States or anything like that.

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My first reaction is to dismiss this, but on second thought, Barrera deserves at least another fight to prove he still has it. It’s always possible the Paq fight was an exception for him. Paq himself has had his off nights and came roaring back. I’m giving Barrera one more shot before I start getting cynical about this.

by Matt Miller on Sep 1, 2008 11:46 AM EDT reply actions

I'm thinking like this

He’s 34. He showed no desire to mix it up with Manny Pacquiao unless Pacquiao absolutely forced him to do so, and when THAT happened, he tried to turn it back into survival mode as quickly as he could. Manny allowed him to do this by not just stomping on him. Roach has said that Manny held back because Barrera is a legend and he didn’t want to embarrass him. Who knows if that means anything, but I did not see Barrera as a fighter that needed to move up another five pounds and try to fight with younger guys. If he fights Marquez again (which I’d love to see, but would probably be hard to make at this point), then great. But I think a push-forward guy like Juan Diaz or Katsidis or Nate Campbell would beat him up nowadays. I don’t see Barrera as any more relevant right now than I do Morales. Both of them went down for what should have been for good against Manny, just in different styles. Barrera tried his best not to get knocked out. Morales, um, did not.

"Yesterday I was lying, today I am telling the truth." -- Bob Arum

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by Scott Christ on Sep 1, 2008 8:26 PM EDT up reply actions