By David Lahr: Marco Antonio Barrera, who has twice been beaten by Pacquiao in 2003 and 2007, thinks Antonio Margarito might have a tough time catching Manny Pacquiao with his shots in their fight on November 13th at the Cowboy Stadium. In an article at the Examiner.com, Barrera says “Antonio has a peculiar style which will enable him to put on a great show. If he can catch Pacquiao with one or two shots, it will be a different story, but it will be difficult for him to catch Pacquiao.” Barrera may not have seen Pacquiao’s last fight against Joshua Clottey in March, because Pacquiao was getting caught early and often throughout the fight. It’s a whole different story now that Pacquiao isn’t fighting little guys like David Diaz and Ricky Hatton anymore.

The bigger fighters aren’t bowled over by Pacquiao’s power in the same way as guys like Hatton were. There’s no question that Margarito is going to catch Pacquiao. He’s going to hit him a lot. The real question here is whether Pacquiao can handle a fighter like Margarito when he’s throwing 100 punches per round. We saw the results of Pacquiao getting hit 20 times per round in his last fight with Clottey. After the fight, Pacquiao’s face looked like it had been run over by a big truck. He didn’t look good for a fighter that was hit so few times. If multiply the amount of punches that Clottey was throwing against Pacquiao x 5, then we have a fight where the outcome is not so certain.

To be sure, I don’t think Margarito has a chance in hell of winning a decision over Pacquiao. We already saw Juan Manuel Marquez lose a questionable decision to Pacquiao in 2008. I think it will take a knockout for Margarito win. However, that’s not a problem, because if he throws 100 punches per round and lands 60 of those shots, I can’t see Pacquiao going any longer then 8 rounds before the referee would have to pull the plug on him because of the beating he’s taken. You just can’t let a little fighter like Pacquiao get hit that often by a much bigger guy, because Pacquiao will end up like mincemeat if the referee lets it go on too long.

Talking about Jerry Jones, the Cowboy stadium owner having an influence on getting Margarito his boxing license with the Texas Athletic Commission, Barrera says “Of course he [Jones] had an influence, because he knows the majority of people who go to the stadium are Hispanic. it is a fight that many people wanted to see, here in Mexico, and in the United States.” I don’t know about that. I haven’t heard a lot of people begging for this fight. Outside of Pacquiao’s own fans, who would watch him against anyone, there really hasn’t been a lot of support for Pacquiao to fight Margarito. Clearly, Top Rank and Bob Arum want this fight, but I haven’t heard other fans requesting it.