Barrera not impressive in beating De Jesus, doesn’t look ready for Soto or Acosta

By Jason Kim: Three time world champion Marco Antonio Barrera (66-7, 43 KO’s) put in a pedestrian performance on Saturday night in beating Brazilian lightweight Adailton De Jesus (26-5, 21 KO’s) by a dull 10 round unanimous decision on the undercard of the Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs. John Duddy bout at the Alamodome, in San Antonio, Texas.

The final judges’ scores were 98-91, 100-90 and 98-92. Barrera, 36, did just enough to win every round, throwing few punches, looking slow and conserving strength as if it were a precious resource. De Jesus, 31, was tailor made for Barrera, a fighter looked timid from the outset of the fight and not particularly interested in mixing it up with Barrera.

It was as if De Jesus was worried about being knocked out and was going to do everything within his power to prevent from getting knocked out again. Occasionally, Barrera would let his hands go a little and would land one or two shots. However, his hand speed looked poor and his power very average. Barrera has spent much of his 11-year pro career fighting in the super flyweight and super bantamweight divisions.

Since moving up to the lightweight division in 2009, Barrera has looked small, slow and not impressive. Last year, Barrera was defeated by Amir Khan in a five round technical decision in March 2009. That was that last time that Barrera fought before last night.

Barrera’s promoter Bob Arum would like to match him up against possibly WBC lightweight champion Humberto Soto or WBA lightweight interim champion Miguel Acosta next in hopes that Barrera can possibly win a 4th world title. Frankly, I think that’s a pipe dream.

Acosta and Soto are fighting on a higher level than Barrera fight now as far as I can tell, and I think Barrera will dominated and badly schooled if he fights either of them.

At 36, however, Barrera isn’t likely going to get any better by not fighting them and wasting time against other fighters. However, I think Barrera will lose badly to either of them when and if the time comes for him to fight them.

It might make for a nice storybook type ending if Barrera was able beat one of them and defend his title a couple of times before retiring. However, this is the real world, and that rarely happens to fading, undersized 36-year-old former champions like Barrera.

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