By Chris Williams: In looking over lightweight Amir Khan’s March 14th fight against veteran former champion Marco Antonio Barrera, I see the decked pretty much stacked against the 35-year-old Barrera, putting him in an almost no win situations. Certainly, Barrera has the advantage in experience over the young 22-year-old Khan, and a better chin than him, but that’s really about it.
The rest of the advantages, such as youth, size, speed, power and fighting in front of a friendly home crowd, all rest with Khan. If that’s not enough, Barrera will be stepping into the ring with a cut – which occurred in his fight against Freudis Rojas on January 31st – that may not be entirely healed by the time the fight he fights Khan. That’s not good news for Barrera, because he already looks small for a lightweight, much weaker and slower than he was eight years ago while fighting as a featherweight.
As such, it seems as if Barrera has been brought in to be a paid for sacrificial lamb for Khan to slaughter. The idea behind choosing an old fighter like Barrera is obvious. He’s like a lion that has had its teeth and claws pulled out, almost totally harmless for Khan to toy with without having to worry about getting stretched again like he was in the 1st round last year by Breidis Prescott in September.
Khan was thought to be mature enough, and wise up to be able to manage Prescott’s power shots without folding. Instead, Khan was staggered by the first hard jab that Prescott threw in the fight, and a few seconds later put down with a left hook.
After adding a new trainer, Khan followed up that defeat with a 2nd round TKO victory over C-class opponent Oisin Fagan in December. The victory did little to heal the wounds from Khan’s destruction by Prescott among fans and writers in the media.
To try and regain his lost credibility, Khan would need a higher grade of opponent, someone with a name, but not someone so good that they could knock him out again. This is where Barrera came in. He had beaten in back to back fights against Juan Manuel Marquez and Manny Pacquiao in 2007 while fighting as a super featherweight, and then looked horrible after moving to lightweight and beating journeyman Sammy Ventura in November.
Looking old, slow and slightly overweight against Ventura, it’s no surprise that Barrera was selected as an opponent for Khan, and it takes no magical future predicting powers to see that Khan will likely wipe the deck with this old version of Barrera. Freddie Roach can see what I can, which is why he blessed the fight and has been making all kinds of positive predictions about Khan winning.
As bad as Barrera has looked in recent fights, it doesn’t take a genius to arrive at the fact that he had very little chance of beating Khan. The only ones who seem to be giving Barrera a chance are those that haven’t seen his recent fights are going on their memory of Barrera fighting in his youth against opponents like Erik Morales, Kevin Kelley and Paulie Ayala. Sadly, that fighter is long gone now, and what remains is only a fraction of what he once was.
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