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Originally Posted by Salvy_Mic As you all know, tonight is the night that Manny Pacquiao and Marco Antonio Barrera hook up once again, a rematch of their first fight back in 2003, where Pacquiao destroyed and humiliated the great Barrera and burst onto the boxing stage. Barrera has said that this will be his last big fight, win or lose, and will follow his bitter rival Erik Morales into retirement. Really, he's got nothing to lose, asides from his pride, and even still, a loss to Pacquiao isn't that bad. He just doesn't match up well with him, and 4 years after the first fight, Barrera has aged while Pacquiao is entering the prime of his career. He has everything to lose: a huge money rematch with Juan Manuel Marquez, potential unification bouts with the likes of Humberto Soto, Joan Guzman, and Edwin Valero, and possibly an eventual campaign at lightweight against the likes of Juan Diaz, Julio Diaz, David Diaz, and Joel Casamayor.
Anyway, Pacquiao should win this fight. It won't be easy, beating Barrera rarely is, but Pacquiao has way too many advantages here: power, speed, size, youth, and more importantly, equal experience. Pacquiao is a much better fighter now than he was 4 years ago, and while Barrera is fairly well known for being able to resurrect himself after a tough loss and spring upsets, I simply can't see him beating Pacquiao. He'll be more than game for sure though, but in the end, I'm taking Pacquiao by a 9th round stoppage in an entertaining fight.
And while I'm posting here, let's not forget that newly crowned interim WBC Heavyweight titlist Samuel Peter is defending his token trinket against Jameel McCline. The fact that Peter must be angry about being given another runaround by Maskaev leads me to believe that Peter will smoke McCline within 8 rounds, size advantage notwithstanding. And when Peter finally does get Maskaev in the ring, he'll smoke him too. |