By Eric Thomas: According to an article from Esto, Marco Antonio Barrera (65-6, 43 KOs) may have to postpone his fight with British lightweight Amir Khan until May due to a bad cut that the 35-year-old Barrera received over his left eye last Saturday against scrub opponent Freudis Rojas at the Auditorio Telmex de UG, Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico. Barrera, easily beating the inexperienced Rojas through the first two rounds, was suddenly speared by him in the 3rd, causing a big cut above Barrera’s left eye.
The fight was immediately stopped with Rojas disqualified for the head butt. The cut, a deep one, likely won’t be healed by March 14th, the date that Barrera has a scheduled fight with Khan.
According to Esto, Barrera will be flying to Miami to meet with Don King to discuss plans for Marco’s fight with Khan, with the idea being that Barrera will be changing the plans for the March 14th fight. King, Barrera and his team will then make the decision about the March 14th bout. Barrera’s team estimates that he will need until May for the bad cut to heal sufficiently.
Hopefully, Barrera isn’t pressured into taking the fight with Khan on March 14th, because that would likely be far too early for his long cut to heal in time for the fight. If Barrera does take the fight with Khan on the 14th, I’d be willing to guess that the cut opens up in a round or two after getting hit with a number of hard jabs from Khan.
The cut is in a bad place, so if it opens up on Barrera, he will be effectively fighting with only one eye. I think he can easily beat Khan if minus any cuts, but if he’s forced to fight with vision in only one eye, I think that would be asking way too much of him.
The ringside doctor won’t likely let the fight continue if this cut opens up again, because of the location of it, so its best that time be given to Barrera to let the cut heal properly. I can see a lot of disappointed fans if the fight ends after only a couple of rounds due to a cut.
If Barrera had crushing power of someone like Breidis Prescott, who knocked Khan out in one round in September 2008, it probably wouldn’t matter, because Barrera then could take Khan out quickly, but that’s not very probable.