By Gerardo Granados: Marco Antonio Barrera aims to become the first Mexican fighter to conquer titles in four weight divisions, but does he really has a good chance to achieve it? Fellow countrymen Erik Morales, Juan Manuel Marquez and Fernando Montiel have the same goal, but it seems like that the only ones to have a real chance are either Marquez or Montiel, neither Morales or Barrera are still in prime physical conditions to compete against the top 140 pounders such as Amir Khan or Timothy Bradley.

Barrera looked impressive dismantling an old unknown fighter last Saturday night, this was a total mismatch, so it was not a good fight to determine if Barrera still has what it takes to become a world champion once more time, maybe Marco Antonio should do what Morales did, engaging against good quality fighters (but not elite ones) preparing himself to engage against a current champion. Barrera carries a lot of weight around his waist at 140 pounds, he has been inactive for too long and won’t have enough power at this weight division to stop any top contenders, so he probably should campaign at 135 pounds to be more competitive.

If Barrera is serious in his intentions to become the first Mexican fighter to conquer titles in four weight divisions then he should prepare himself properly and be realistic about his chances, he is 37 years old, has a record T 75 – W 67 (44) – L 7 (1) – D 0, 26 title fights, he is a former three division champion WBC – IBF super featherweight, WBC – IBO – The Ring featherweight, WBO super bantamweight, being originally a super flyweight fighter, and as Erik Morales is an old lion too. I think he has no chance against the top 140 pounders, so he should try to campaign at 135 pounds but then the problem for Barrera might be that at lightweight he would have to challenge champions as Humberto Soto – WBC, Juan Manuel Marquez – WBA/WBO, Miguel Vazquez – IBF or Lenny Zappavigna – IBO (will fight against Vazquez 2011-03-12 for the IBF lightweight title).

Soto has the tools to defeat Barrera, also Marquez can defeat him just as he did four years ago when they disputed the WBC super featherweight title back in 2007; the winner between Vazquez and Zappavigna might be his best shot at the title but not an easy one. Vazquez is an underrated boxer, he has only three defeats, twice to power hitting WBC super welterweight silver champion Saul Alvarez (SD and UD) and once by UD to light welterweight WBC – WBO champion Timothy Bradley; Zappavigna hasn’t engaged against top quality fighters yet so it is not adequate to tag him as an easy opponent for any good fighter.

Barrera didn’t looked really bad against Khan (135 pounds), he was stopped due a nasty cut in 2009, but he has only fought once in 2010 and last Saturday in his comeback he fought a rival that was not able to give him enough rounds to determine what is it that he needs to focus on to improve in the gym.

I wish the best for Marco Antonio Barrera but I give him very little chances to achieve his goal. Boxing is full of surprises, let see if Marco can accomplish what others have, Muhammad Ali did surprised a lot of boxing experts when he defeated George Foreman didn’t he?