Barrera likely to fight Soto next

By Boxing News - 06/29/2010 - Comments

Image: Barrera likely to fight Soto nextBy Eric Thomas: 36-year-old Marco Antonio Barrera (66-7, 43 KO’s), despite little real success against top level opposition in the past three years, has his pick of which lightweight champion he wants to fight next. Barrera can fight either World Boxing Council (WBC) lightweight champion Humberto Soto (52-7-2, 32 KO’s) or the WBA lightweight title holder Miguel Acosta (27-3-2, 21 KO’s). Both are equally formidable fighters and perhaps a couple steps too far for the aging Barrera to beat at this point.

According to the latest news gossip, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is rumored to be leaning towards putting Barrera in with Soto next, because he sees this as a fight that will do well with the Mexican audiences. Although Barrera might be better off taking a tune-up before fighting a dangerous fighter like Soto, it doesn’t like that’s going to happen.

Arum is likely to gamble that Barrera has enough talent and experience that he can rise to the occasion and beat Soto. Maybe he will, but it’s highly unlikely. Barrera didn’t get much of a tune-up in his fight last weekend against Adailton De Jesus at the Alamodome, in San Antonio, Texas. De Jesus rarely tried to mix it up with Barrera and looked as if he was in the survival mode from the minute the fight started.

Barrera fought at a slow pace and just took his time, satisfied with grinding out a dull 10 round unanimous decision. There’s still a lot of unanswered questions about how much Barrera has left in the tank at this point in his career. He lost to Juan Manuel Marquez, Manny Pacquiao and Amir Khan in the past three years and hasn’t beaten a top tier fighter in four years since beating brawler Rocky Juarez in back to back fights in 2006. Four years is a long time to go between wins over top level opposition.

I expect Barrera to look slow and lethargic in a fight against Soto and to lose a lopsided 12 round decision. Barrera’s better days are far behind in the rearview mirror, and while he does seem capable of putting in a good performance in terms of bringing some excitement to the fans, I don’t see him being good enough to beat Soto or Acosta. Both of those fighters are more or less still in the prime of their careers.

Both are in their early 30s, and probably have at least three to five good years left. Barrera, 36, doesn’t seem to have much left at all, as we saw in his fight against Amir Khan. Barrera might be better off if he was to move down to the super featherweight or super bantamweight divisions where he previously fought, but at his age, it’s doubtful he can take off the pounds to make those weight classes anymore.



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