In Manny Pacquiao, we have a fighter who has not yet reached his peak. So says his trainer, the classy Freddie Roach. In Marco Antonio Barrera, we have a fighter who is a tick or two past his prime, but still possesses a combination of talent and courage that could give anyone fits on a given night.
It’s just the sort of mix that figures to provide fans a thrilling main event between the two super featherweights Saturday at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. It will be a rematch of a November 2003 bout won by Pacquiao via 11th-round technical knockout. It’s the only time Barrera has been stopped in his illustrious career.
Last week, we got to spend some time with Roach and Pacquiao a day before the rest of the media did. It was a fairly busy Wild Card gym in Hollywood, what with regulars as well as friends and camp members of Pacquiao on hand. But it was all business. Pacquiao was absolutely tremendous in everything he did. He looked mean and ready.
As Pacquiao (44-3-2, 35 KOs) hit the speed bag, we sat down with Roach on the apron of the ring. Many subjects were broached during our chat, but it was interesting to hear Roach talk about how the best is yet to come for Pacquiao, and how he has gone about trying to help Pacquiao, 28, be the best he can be. That includes making him a better boxer by shoring up his defense and honing up his technical skills.
“The one thing I’ll never take away from him is his natural ability, and that’s his willingness to exchange and to fight, be aggressive,” Roach said. “I mean, that’s what he is. That’s who he is. I can’t take that away from him. The thing is, I will never change him. I try to improve his skills, of course. Some (people) tell me he just has a good left hand, and I go and work on the right hand. The right hand’s coming along really good and then someone told me his defense is really terrible. But when you go for it, you put yourself out there. And you expose yourself.
“But we try and throw in a little more defense, a little more head movement. And you know, I don’t think he’s at his best yet. I think he’s still capable of doing more and he’s very open to that. He likes to be taught more. The thing is, we’re trying to make him a better all-around fighter. But I’m not going to take away from his aggressiveness. That’s what he is and that’s what makes him exciting.”
Well, we are happy to hear that because Roach is right. The thing people like most about Pacquiao is that he goes toe to toe with everybody. He doesn’t pick and choose his opponents to do that. One thing we know is that we never have to worry about Pacquiao running from anybody. He’s as ferocious as they come today.
And Roach is right about Pacquiao. He does seem to have that frame of mind that he wants to get better. Here he is either the No. 1 or No. 2 pound-for-pound fighter in the world in probably most respected polls – he’s No. 1 in mine – but he’d never tell you that.
“I look at myself like, I’m just an ordinary fighter, but I can fight a good fighter,” Pacquiao said with a straight face as he sat in his dressing room after his intense workout. “That’s how I look at myself right now.”
In other words, unlike Floyd Mayweather Jr. – who is probably No. 1 in more polls
than Pacquiao – Pacquiao doesn’t boast about being the best. And that could be because he actually believes he still has improving to do before he reaches that plateau. You have to love that attitude.
Then there is Barrera. He is 14-2 in his past 16 fights. But the first of those two losses during that span was against Pacquiao. The second one was in his last fight in March against fellow Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez. Barrera not only is looking to avenge his loss to Pacquiao, he is trying to avoid back-to-back losses in the twilight of his career. He has gone on record as saying that this will be his last fight, but it’s hard to believe he would pass up a chance at a rubber match should he beat Pacquiao on Saturday. Either way, he is one motivated future Hall of Famer.
The thing is, will that motivation be enough to overcome his own deteriorating skills as well as the monster in the ring that is going to be Pacquiao? During a recent conference call, Barrera answered all the questions. At one point, he became very animated when talking about why this fight is so important to him. The passion he displayed made me wonder if he just might be able to come up with what could be perceived as the biggest of victory his career.
“More than anything, it’s the motivation that gets me up for these fights,” he said through translator Eric Gomez, who is the matchmaker for Golden Boy Promotions, which promotes Barrera. “The motivation of these nay-sayers, the people who keep putting me down. They say that I’m out. I like to shut their mouths.
“It’s happened in the past. Yes, they criticize me. They told me that I had been done, but I’ve come back and shut their mouths. They say they’re the experts in boxing. Just because you watch boxing doesn’t mean you’re an expert. I like to prove them wrong more than anything. I think that yeah, this fight, I’m going to have a chance to do the same thing.”
Now, here’s the thing: Is this a passion that will help carry Barrera, 33, to victory? Or is it the kind of passion that will hurt him? Later on in the call, Barrera hinted – as he has before – that something was rotten in Denmark regarding the decision loss he received at the hands of Marquez. He was asked to give a list of the top fighters in Mexico’s history. He ended naming a top 12. Erik Morales was No. 11 and Barrera put himself 12th. Nowhere to be found was Marquez. Where is he in the mix? Barrera was asked.
“Those 12 fighters that I just named are fighters that have won in the ring, not fights that were fixed or they (meaning the judges) helped them win.”
Hey, if Barrera (63-5, 42 KOs) is going into a fight with arguably the pound-for-pound king of this boxing jungle still perturbed about a fight that happened seven months ago, that could be a detriment.
One thing is for sure, Barrera has come back from losses before. After back to back setbacks to Junior Jones in November 1996 and April 1997, respectively, Barrera went 6-0 with one no-contest in his next seven fights before losing to Morales in their first fight in February 2000. Barrera then came back to win eight consecutive fights. Included in that streak were wins over Naseem Hamed and Morales. And after losing to Pacquiao, Barrera won six in a row – including his third fight with Morales – before losing to Marquez.
This ability is one of the reasons why Barrera is, in my mind, much better than the 12th best fighter in Mexico’s history. When the man is down, he does get back up. It’s also one reason why his promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, is convinced his man will have his hand raised in a few days.
“He’s the underdog and people are counting him out,” De La Hoya said. “But I believe that’s what he thrives on. That’s what he feeds off of so he can be a better fighter in that ring.”
It sounds good. But the feeling here is that Pacquiao will once again stop Barrera. This time it won’t take 11 rounds to do it.