Before this year is over, boxing will have several championship fights violent as Marco Antonio Barrera versus Juan Manuel Marquez was. Boxing will have one fight more tactical, too. But there is little chance that boxing will again enjoy as complete a celebration of prizefighting as what Barrera and Marquez just put together.
Mark it down. Until Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez make it to the championship rounds, or Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez do it again in the fall, Barrera-Marquez I is the Fight of the Year. Please don’t let the anything that happened after the closing bell or during the pay-per-view broadcast sully the masterwork Mexico City’s finest created last Saturday night.
After the closing bell what happened was a unanimous-decision victory for Juan Manuel Marquez, making him the new WBC super-featherweight champ. That part was fine. The judges’ scores – 118-109, 116-111, 116-111 – were not. However much a judge may appreciate aggression, there was little justification for Doug Tucker’s scorecard awarding Marco Antonio Barrera the equivalent of only one round in twelve. HBO’s unofficial scorer Harold Lederman, who had Barrera winning 114-113, wasn’t much of a lighthouse, either.
I scored the fight 115-113 for Juan Manuel Marquez. On my card, Marquez won Rounds 3, 4, 5, 7, 10 and 12. Barrera won Rounds 2, 6, 8, 9 and 11. I scored Round 1 even, 10-10. Round 7 went to Marquez, 10-8.
The seventh round is a point of contention with all four of Saturday’s scorecards, official and unofficial. Juan Manuel Marquez buckled Barrera with a straight right at the halfway mark of the round. For the next minute, there was doubt that Barrera could get to the bell. At 2:53, however, Barrera dropped Marquez with a right of his own. Barrera then sauntered over and whacked Marquez while both Marquez’s gloves were touching the blue mat. Referee Jay Nady ruled the knockdown a slip – no knockdown – then punished Barrera with a point deduction, making it a 10-8 round for Marquez.
Let’s consider some other scoring possibilities.
At 2:50 of Round 7, Marquez was en route to a 10-8 round. If Barrera’s knockdown of Marquez at 2:53 had been properly ruled a knockdown, then, the round would have switched to 9-10 for Barrera. Barrera’s unsportsmanlike act would have closed the round at 9-9.
Or how about this? Barrera comes back bravely in the round’s closing seconds, gets credit for knocking-down Marquez and stays his cocked right fist. Barrera wins the round, 8-10.
Both of the above scenarios would have changed the result of my scorecard. A 9-9 round would have led to a 114-114 draw. An 8-10 round would have led to a 113-115 victory for Barrera. Neither of the above scenarios, though, would have changed the result for any of the four scorecards included in Saturday’s broadcast.
That three official judges’ cards and one unofficial card were immune to a four-point swing in such an even fight indicts all four scorecards.
Never mind the judges, then. Another bit of advice? Watch next Saturday’s HBO rebroadcast of Barrera-Marquez with the volume muted. The usually exemplary Jim Lampley rode his vocal cords to hoarseness demanding that New Jersey’s experiment with instant replay be implemented in Nevada, posthaste, to correct Referee Nady’s Round 7 error.
From Barrera’s ringwalk till 1:32 of that round, actually, the entire broadcast had a “Marco’s Greatest Hits” feel to it. The opening three stanzas, which were exceptionally close, had the HBO crew speaking loudly about Barrera every time he hit Marquez, and at times reminiscing almost as loudly about Barrera’s fights with Erik Morales – while Barrera was hit by Marquez.
But every round of the first six saw Juan Manuel Marquez land two or three power shots, whether rights to Barrera’s head or left hooks to Barrera’s body. For this reason no one who watches a replay of Barrera-Marquez, with his thumb on the mute button, will be at all surprised by what transpires in the seventh round.
Rounds 7 and 8 were two of the finest, most-entertaining rounds likely to be seen this year. Though he was notably affected by Marquez’s right hand in the last five rounds, Marco Antonio Barrera showed the courage that makes his fights part of every serious fan’s annual pay-per-view budget.
Juan Manuel Marquez, meanwhile, would discover that in the late rounds Barrera anticipated every right cross Marquez threw. Marquez then stopped throwing over Barrera’s guard and began to throw right uppercuts under it. Barrera next realized he couldn’t outslug Marquez from close range and began to pepper him with stiff jabs. It was the essence of what writer A.J. Liebling first called the “sweet science.”
The championship rounds came, and both men fought the final six minutes as they should be fought. Neither yielded to his own fatigue or opponent’s expertise. What Round 12 lacked in the schoolyard-row savagery of Barrera-Morales I & III it supplied in technique and precision.
But after the final bell rang, the rest of the evening disappointed. Along with the judges’ exaggerated scores came both fighters forsaking interpreter Jerry Olaya’s excellent services, to speak English rather than Spanish. This was regrettable. Both men speak English well enough to make prepared statements at press conferences. Neither man, however, could provide, in English, what postfight wisdom both were known for sharing in Spanish.
A note to Mexican prizefighters, then: If you see Jerry Olaya standing in the ring – as opposed to some other interpreters – it’s okay to speak Spanish. Your countrymen will understand you, and English speakers will get a fine translation of your insights.
Finally, a note on my scorecard. If any reviewers find it biased in Marquez’s favor, there’s this to offer in my defense: By the end of the twelfth round, I was cheering for a Marquez victory. But only because it would logically bring a rematch.