LOOK WHO?S TALKING: BARRERA BAD-MOUTHS ?DREAM MATCH?
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 04 Dec 2008
The fading, one-time Mexican legend Marco Antonio Barrera has bad-mouthed the ?Dream Match? between Filipino ring icon Manny Pacquiao and ?The Golden Boy? Oscar De La Hoya which takes place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on Sunday morning, Manila Time.
Barrera who left Golden Boy Promotions and signed up with Don King was quoted as saying the fight is ?a circus?. Barrera went on to say the fight ?is something that will make us lose a lot of credibility as boxers, with these kind of things.?
Barrera made the comments in a conversation with Nicaraguan journalist Pablo Freights according to Mark Vester of Boxing Scene.
Barrera was quoted as saying De La Hoya ?should win in two rounds. The fight is a circus. Jose Sulaiman (WBC president) said the same thing. That the fight was a circus. Their pockets are the ones that are going to win. They are the ones who are going to leave full and satisfied because the boxing family will not get a lot from this farce.?
Based on his mean remarks it seems that the metal plate in Barrera?s brain may have been dislodged by the mauling he received at the hands of Pacquiao in their first fight or the merciful beating he took in the rematch.
And talking of a circus we wonder what his farcical fight against Sammy Ventura in Chengdu, China can be branded when the Chinese people were virtually swindled by Don King into paying to watch a fight card of lumbering, incompetent heavyweights and a collection of miscellaneous individuals posing as fighters.
Ventura who suffered his eighth stoppage inside four rounds in his last eleven fights fell to 25-20 with 20 knockouts which respected TV commentator Col. Bob Sheridan described as more of a sparring session in which Barrera was pulling his punches. How Don King was able to get the WBO to rank Barrera No.1 is in itself a mystery and part of the circus in boxing.
Besides, while it is true that Don Jose Sulaiman criticized the fight bitterly, he himself told us in an overseas telephone conversation that he was flying to Las Vegas to watch the fight because both De La Hoya and Pacquiao were his ?heroes.?
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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