Marco Antonio Barrera Tapia (born January 17, 1974 in Mexico City) is a Mexican professional boxer and former world WBC Super Featherweight champion. Barrera, whose brother Jorge Barrera is also a boxer, had a successful amateur boxing career where he won 55 out of 58 bouts, and then he turned professional. Barrera is a member of an affluent Mexico City family. A three time division world champion, Barrera is famously known as the The Baby-Faced Assassin.Barrera once again moved up in weight in 2001. He fought and defeated British boxer Naseem Hamed for the IBO Featherweight title by a twelve-round decision on April 7. This fight marks something of a watershed in Barrera's career, in that he had previously employed an aggressive strategy of brawling with opponents, dispensing with technical skill. As just such tactics had proven to be the undoing of so many of Hamed's opponents, Barrera shocked the boxing community by fighting on the back foot and in a very technically sound style, utilizing his reach advantage to jab Hamed without being jabbed in return, keeping his guard consistently high, and rotating away from Hamed's feared left hand punch.
Barrera outclassed former world champion, Johnny Tapia (left) in 2001.Barrera took a long lay-off after that, but in 2002 he met Morales in a rematch, this time for the WBC Featherweight Title . In this fight, the judges awarded Barrera a close decision. In his next defense, he met old friend and former world champion Johnny Tapia on November 7 and beat him by a 12 round unanimous decision.After dispatching Kelley, Barrera lost by an eleventh-round knockout to former WBC World Flyweight and then IBF Super Bantamweight champion Emmanuel Pacquiao (commonly known as "Manny" Pacquiao), in San Antonio, Texas on November 7. Barrera could not handle Pacquiao's southpaw stance and blazing hand speed. Pacquiao dominated Barrera, knocking him down several times until Barrera's corner stopped the bout. Many thought Barrera was done as a fighter. Shortly before this fight, it was revealed that in 1997 Barrera had undergone a brain surgery to remove an abnormal vein, and a metal plate had been installed to cover the area on his skull that was operated on.In his next fight, on June 19 of 2004, Barrera faced former two time World Bantamweight champion Paulie Ayala in Los Angeles. Barrera won the fight by a tenth round knockout, easily out-boxing Ayala.
Once and for All, Barrera finally defeats Erik Morales (left) with out controversy and wins the WBC Super Fearherweight Title in 2004.On November 27, he and Morales met for the third time. Barrera became a three division world champion by defeating Morales by a majority decision, while also taking a 2-1 lead in their particular series of fights. The third Barrera-Morales encounter was nicknamed "Once and for All." With this win Barrera had regained his credibility after his shocking loss to Pacquiao and had finally beaten Morales clearly and without controversy.
On April 9, 2005, Barrera retained the WBC Super Featherweight title with a second round knockout over Mzonke Fana in El Paso, Texas.
On September 17 of the same year, he unified his WBC Super Featherweight title with the IBF World Junior Lightweight title version by defeating the IBF world champion Robbie Peden by a twelve round unanimous decision, in Las Vegas.
On May 20, 2006, Barrera successfully defended his title against Rocky Ju?rez with what was announced immediately after the fight as a twelve-round draw, which the judges scored 115-113, 113-115, and 114-114. However, tabulation errors were found in the judges' scorecards, leading to a final score of 115-114, 114-115, and 115-114, a split decision in favor of Barerra. Because a champion retains his title in the case of a draw, Barrera's status as WBC Super Featherweight champion was unaffected. Although not required by contract, Barrera and Juarez met in a rematch on September 16, this time Barrera winning comfortably on points through a unanimous decision (117-111, 115-113, 115-113).On March 17, 2007 Barrera lost his WBC Super Featherweight title to fellow Mexican Juan Manuel M?rquez by unanimous decision. Though Barrera claimed that the judges and referee were wrong, because he knocked down Marquez in the 7th, and the referee ruled it a slip.[1]
Barrera's fights are promoted by Oscar De La Hoya under the direction of Golden Boy Promotions. He trains at De La Hoya's training facility in Big Bear, California. Marco
Antonio Barrera has stated in an interview that he
has five more fights left in him for his career in
particular he wants a rematch with Manny Pacquiao
and Juan Manuel Marquez before he decides to retire.
Background from Yahoo search result
