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Barrera vs. Ayala Taylor vs. Marquez
June 19, 2004 Home
Depot Center 9:45pm ET \ PT
Line-up: Featherweight Bout (12 Rds.) Marco Antonio Barrera (57-4, 40 KO's) vs. Paulie Ayala (35-2, 12 KO's)
Middleweight Bout (12 Rds.) Jermain Taylor (20-0, 15 KO's) vs. Raul Marquez (35-2, 24 KO's)
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This Saturday night, former super bantamweight and featherweight champion Marco Antonio Barrera makes his return to the ring after his devastating loss to Manny Pacquiao in November of 2003 on HBO's Boxing After Dark. Barrera will be facing the tough former bantamweight and super bantamweight champion Paulie Ayala. Also on the card, the WBC Continental Americas middleweight champion Jermain Taylor will put his title on the line against the former IBF Jr. middleweight champion Raul Marquez.
Marco Antonio Barrera enters this Saturdays bout having taken more than half-a-year off after being dominated by Manny Pacquiao, before Barrera's corner stopped the fight in the 11th round, last November 15th (2003). The question for this fight is how much did that Pacquiao fight take out of him and does he still have the fighting spirit to continue as he didn't look to have it against Pacquiao.
Barrera won his first 43 bouts in a row (starting in 1989), winning all but 12 by knockout. He captured the WBO super bantamweight title in 1995 with a unanimous decision win over then champion Daniel Jimenez. Barrera defended his title eight times before running into a road block names Junior Jones. In 1996, Barrera was down twice and was disqualified in their first bout when one of his corner people jumped into the ring. The rematch five months later saw Barrera drop a 12 round unanimous decision to Jones. Barrera regrouped and won the (vacant) WBO super bantamweight title again in 1998 when he defeated Richie Wenton by fourth round TKO. Then in 2000, the unification bout between WBO champ Barrera and the WBC super bantamweight champ Erik Morales took place which turned out to be one of the best fights to ever go down in the history of boxing. The fight was non-stop action and when it was all over, the crowd thought Barrera had done enough to win but the judges awarded a split-decision victory to Morales. Barrera's next big match came in April of 2001 when he moved up to the featherweight ranks and battled Prince Naseem Hamed. Barrera easily handled the Prince and came out with a unanimous decision victory. One fight later, Barrera got a rematch with Erik Morales and again, the two battled for 12 rounds. This time, the crowd thought Morales had done enough to win but the judges awarded a unanimous decision win to Barrera. Barrera then ran off two consecutive wins over Johnny Tapia (12 rd unanimous decision) and Kevin Kelly (4th rd TKO), respectively, before running into Pacquiao in his last bout.
Paulie Ayala won his first 25 bouts in a row (starting in 1992) before getting a world title shot. In 1998, Ayala battled then WBC bantamweight champion Joichiro Tatsuyoshi and came out on the short end when the fight was stopped in six due to an Ayala head butt and Tatsuyoshi was awarded a technical decision. Ayala recuperated and two fights later (1999), battled then WBA bantamweight champion Johnny Tapia in a war. Ayala came out on top and won a unanimous decision over Tapia and became the WBA champion. Six wins later (Nov. ' 02), Ayala moved up in weight and battled Barrera nemesis Erik Morales for the vacant WBC featherweight title. Morales dominated, and Ayala lost a 12 round unanimous decision. Since then, Ayala has fought only once against Edel Ruiz in November of 2003 and came out on top with a 10 round unanimous decision win.
Who will win? It depends on which Barrera shows up. If it's the Barrera of old, he easily handles Ayala and wins a 12 round unanimous decision. If it's the Barrera that fought Pacquiao, Ayala dominates the fight as Barrera will look like he's there to collect a paycheck. Bottom line, your guess is as good as mine.
The co-feature will see the up and coming undefeated WBC Continental Americas middleweight champion Jermain Taylor. Taylor was last in the ring in March of this year and defeated Alex Bunema via a 7th round TKO.
Raul Marquez is the former IBF Jr. middleweight champion and his only losses have come at the hands of Yory Boy Campas and Fernando Vargas. Marquez may be best known for fighting Shane Mosley (pre-De La Hoya II) for three rounds before the fight being stopped and declared a no-contest because of a cut suffered by Marquez from an accidental head butt. Marquez's last bout was in October of 2003 when he defeated Humberto Aranda by knockout in the fourth round.
I like Marquez in a 12 round decision but if he gets careless, he'll be TKO'd in eight.
SN
(6/17/04)
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