By Chris Williams: Lightweight Amir Khan’s (20-1, 15 KOs) 5th round stoppage victory over former boxing great Marco Antonio Barrera (65-7, 43 KOs) on March 14th at the M.E.N Arena on March 14 in Manchester, England, is looking more and more tainted by the day. Though Khan won apparently in a convincing manner, Barrera was hampered by a big cut on his left portion of his scalp that occurred with one minute to go in the 1st round against Khan.
The cut would bleed profusely all fight long, leaking into Barrera’s left eye and making it hard for him to see. The cut was examined in the 4th by the ringside doctor, who ignored the blood that was obscuring the left portion of Barrera’s face like a Halloween mask, and let the fight continue.
If the fight had been stopped before the end of the 4th, the fight would have been ruled a no contest. Instead, the British ringside doctor waited until the 5th to have the fight stopped.
Yesterday, Barrera’s promoter Don King shot a cannon across the bow when filed a protested with the WBA, WBO and British Boxing Board on behalf of Barrera, with the goal being to try and overturn the decision and rule it a no contest. The cut, a huge slice in the top scalp area of Barrera’s head, would later need 33 stitches to close.
The question is with all the criticism that has sprung up because of Khan’s tainted victory, will he do the right thing and give Barrera a rematch? My educated guess is no. He probably will move on with his career, ignore the critics and move on to either a title fight or a rematch against Breidis Prescott in the near future. Although I frankly seeing that fight happening, either.
However, Khan shouldn’t even be thinking about Prescott right now because of the taint that surrounds his victory over Barrera. He can’t let this fight result stand with the many people seeing the fight as not being legitimate.
Indeed, the bout seemed all wrong in the first place, mainly because Barrera, who hasn’t looked his best in recent years, was being brought in only two months after suffering a bad cut over his left eye in his 3rd round disqualification victory over Freudis Rojas on January 31st.
It seemed almost certain that Barrera’s cut would open up after a few rounds of being pounded on. Add to that, Barrera had fought most of his career as a bantamweight, featherweight and super featherweight and had only recently moved up to the lightweight division where he had looking anything but impressive.
It seemed as if Barrera was being brought in as the sacrificial lamb to make Khan look good in the gullible minds of the unknowing public. Unfortunately, the head butt ruined all, causing the fight to be stopped before Khan could truly prove that he was the dominant fighter.
He controlled the fight, there’s no doubt about that, but he was doing it an old, half blind fighter. How is that sporting? Even with that disadvantage, Barrera was still able to stagger Khan in the 2nd round with a left hook.
So, back to the question of whether Khan will give Barrera a rematch or not. I think Khan won’t like the criticism and part of him will want to clear things up by giving Barrera a rematch, but I don’t think he will. He probably will see his dominance over five rounds of a cut up Barrera as evidenced that he could do the same over the course of a 12-round bout with a injury free Barrera, and will opt not to fight Barrera again.
However, if Khan’s smart, he’ll give Barrera a rematch, because it will give Khan more time to develop his boxing skills, given him another good payday without as much risk, and keep him away from big punchers like Prescott for a little while longer.
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