Should Khan Have Given Barrera a Rematch?

By Sean McDaniel: Yesterday, the British Boxing Board of Control and the WBO ruled that the results of March 14th bout between lightweights Amir Khan vs. Marco Antonio Barrera stands, which saw Khan win the fight by a 5th round technical decision. Barrera, 35, was cut high on his scalp near his hairline in the 1st round of the bout by a head butt.

The cut, a really bad one, leaked blood from the moment the head clash occurred and it seemed unusual that the referee allowed the fight to continue until just beyond the point where the fight could be no longer ruled as a no contest had the bout been stopped.

The cut bled the exact same amount in every round and was no different in the 5th, which was when the referee took Barrera over to the ringside doctor, then it was in the 1st. Don King, the promoter of Barrera, was unhappy with the result of the fight and immediately appealed the verdict to the WBO to try and get the fight ruled as a no contest.

However, despite the ruling of the WBO and the British Boxing Board of Control saying that the results of the fight stand, should Khan have given Barrera a rematch? It’s hard to imagine that Khan can feel good about beating a fighter that was as badly cut as Barrera was for the entire fight.

In a sense, Barrera was fighting with only one eye for almost the entire fight. You would think that if Khan wanted an untainted win over Barrera he would have at least given him a chance for a rematch rather than moving on and acting as if it was clear cut victory.

It was a five round fight, more like an exhibition fight against a fighter with a patch over one of his eyes than a true victory in my view of the fight. The choice of opponent was bad, because Khan should have been fighting a rematch with Breidis Prescott, the Colombian fighter who had cleaned Khan’s clock with a 1st round knockout late last year.

Obviously, Prescott was off limits and one to avoid because of the beat down that he inflicted upon Khan in that fight. Barrera was in effect the sacrificial lamb, an older fighter whom had lost much of his boxing skills through old age and too many ring wars.

If Khan was seeking credibility by choosing an older fighter that was once great, he should have at least done it right by giving Barrera a rematch to prove that Khan can beat him over a full 12 rounds and not get by with a stoppage win due to a cut. I think the fight was handled badly by the referee.

It should have been stopped well before the 5th due to the bad cut on Barrera’s head. And if the referee couldn’t do the smart thing, then Khan should at least realize that the fight wasn’t a fair one for Barrera and should give him an immediate rematch rather than move on to a title match against WBA light welterweight champion Andriy Kotelnik. Khan didn’t prove that he’s better than Barrera, yet he’s now moving on to a title fight against a bigger fighter than Barrera.