Beaten but not forgotten

By Kishan Nundloll

Once in a blue moon, does a fighter of Marco Antonio Barrera’s class and pedigree come along. As spectators it is a dream come true. But in Mandalay bay, Las Vegas, he fought his last fight. This has to be the end of the road for arguably the greatest Mexican fighter of his generation. His defeat to Juan Marquez was not of a man past it or a man who looked lost because Barrera gave as good as he got to an extent. It is much more obvious , Marco Antonio Barrera looked like a man who is starting to show his war scars as a boxer. The countless battles he has had with great icons such as Erik Morales and Manny Pacquio are starting to take its toll on this great warrior.

One defeat does not signal the end of his career far from it, he has proven that he can pick himself up after defeat and come back stronger and it would be naive to write him off. Yet this time as a boxing journalist and a fan in my opinion he doesn’t need to carry on. Hs legacy is intact and there is no shame losing to Juan Marquez. There’s no questing that the judges got the scoring completely wrong. That was evident from the first fight of the night with Steve Forbes and Hopkins. Deep down in his heart though Barrera must know that he did not do enough to win and the knockout that wasn’t acknowledged still wouldn’t have been enough.

With more than sixty professional fights under his belt and countless championships won, not to mention the many fights regarded as ‘one of the greatest’, its time that this champion calls it a day. It’s with deep sadness that I write this but the sport doesn’t need to see another great trying to find hid prime again, because rarely does it happen. With the exceptions of de la Hoya and Bernard Hopkins, there are few that can say, they found the motivation and intensity that got them to the top and reproduced it.

Many boxing journalists and fans, could see after the Rocky Juarez fights that the pace and technique of Barrera was starting to disappear. His appetite was starting to diminish. Barrera has never avoided anyone in boxing, fighting and beating the best putting on displays that seemed impossible to contrive. He had desire and hunger that couldn’t be reached by opponents and that’s a tremendous attribute to have as a boxer and a man. Barrera is a humble boxer and an intelligent man and hopefully he will see that enough is enough and that he hasn’t got to do this any more. His life has been enriched by the sport and not taken, that he should be grateful for.

There is no question that true boxing fans will speak and remember him fondly and always query him to be the best boxer of the modern century. If he does come back for one more fight as so many of his peers do he could find himself being labelled a ‘has been’ or even worst, the man who used to be the greatest boxer of his generation. I hope he makes the right choice.