After fighting 12 rounds in the ring, both Mexico City native boxers, Marco Antonio Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez, jumped on the ropes of their corners and raised their arms hoping to hear the judge’s decision in their favor at the end of the fight that seemed very close to a draw. From beginning to end both fighters gave it their best in a fight that made it difficult to choose who should be the winner, but the judges didn’t see it that way. Marquez won Barrera’s title by unanimous decision on Saturday, march 17th. Two of the judges gave the match a score of 116-111 in favor of Marquez while the other gave a score of 118-109 also in favor of Marquez.
Immediately following the fight Marquez offered Barrera a rematch and said he was a great champion and deserved the rematch. But Barrera saw it differently saying that maybe the judges were soccer referees and complained about the low hits from Marquez that he says weren’t counted.
During the fight, Barrera (63-5, 45 KO’s) managed to knock down Marquez (47-3-1, 3 KO’s) by the end of the 7th round; Marquez on the other hand crawled forward and held on with his gloves when Barrera got close to him and hit him on the side of the head while he was still down. The referee stopped Barrera and at the same time the bell rang he dismissed the move as a knockout and took a point off of Barrera’s score for hitting Marquez when he “slipped”. It was obviously a mistake on the referee’s part for not counting the fall in favor of Marquez, but in the end, although Barrera lost the round and a point from his score, it was something insignificant from the judges point of view. By the way things go on in a boxing match, you can compare it more and more to a dramatic soap opera when the time comes for the judges to decide on who will be the winner.
According to the CompuBox statistics that calculate the number of blows from each fighter, Marquez landed stronger hits, totaling 197 against Barrera’s 146. But Barrera landed a few more hits reaching a total of 262, seven more than what Marquez had landed.
Marquez finally reached his goal of defeating one of the greatest fighters in boxing. But for now he waits for the day to come when he will have to challenge Filipino fighter Manny Pacquiao, who he fought back in 2004 in a match that ended in a draw. Barrera’s last defeat was in 2003 when he fought against Pacquiao. Marquez is now a part of the Mexican warriors in boxing that will bring us great fights whether it be against Pacquiao, Barrera o whatever other rival he may come across.