By Matthew Hurley

I officially closed the summer this past Saturday night at the Tweeter Center in Mansfield, Massachusetts completely and utterly entranced by Roger Waters performing Dark Side of the Moon beneath a clear sky and a full moon.  When the concert was over the looming dread of another miserable Boston winter grabbed me for a moment and then I remembered that there are several terrific boxing shows upcoming and I perked up as I drove home.  One of the best cards is this weekend’s rematch between Marco Antonio Barrera and Rocky Juarez.  From top to bottom this is a solid pay per view event – something boxing fans rarely get.

Along with the Barrera – Juarez rematch we have WBC junior featherweight titlist Israel Vazquez against WBO bantamweight champion Jhonny Gonzalez and WBO junior lightweight champion Jorge Barrios against Joan Guzman.  It’s rare that the under card of a major championship bout is as intriguing as this.  Both fights should prove to be entertaining.

But it’s the main event that really has boxing fans buzzing, mainly because the first fight was such an evenly contested battle with yet another dubious decision ending.  No one truly had any problem with the bout being ruled a draw.  Indeed most boxing scribes and fans either had it one or two points one way or the other or, as I did a draw.  Barrera, ever the gentleman, nodded in agreement with the decision.  Juarez, disappointed that he didn’t get the nod, acknowledged both his own effort and his rival and seemed ok with the verdict. 

It was only later, when the ruling was changed to a victory for Barrera because of an “error in adding up the scorecards”, did Juarez lose his cool.  But even then, the even keeled Juarez didn’t storm off like Winky Wright after his draw with Jermain Taylor.  He simply met with the media and quietly asserted his belief that he won and that at the very least he deserved a rematch.

Barrera, prideful but always dignified, agreed with his young opponent.  “He fought a great fight.  We looked at what was open to us, what was best for us and decided that the fight was so close and good that we should have the rematch.  He deserves it and I know that I can improve on my performance.”

Juarez has maintained that stoic quality throughout the build up for the rematch but his excitement at getting a second opportunity does escape him from time to time, albeit quietly.  “I can beat myself up over what I should have done in the first fight,” he says, with a slight shrug.  “But I think I learned so much about him and myself in that fight that I’ll be even better.  That fight made me realize that I belong with the best out there.  I know I should have turned it on sooner but I had too much respect for Barrera.  I should have taken more risks than I did, but I thought I had to be careful.”

Juarez’s confidence in himself during the fight heightened in the bout’s second half but in retrospect, and after having viewed the tape, he feels he earned Barrera’s respect much earlier.  “I believe I caught him with a good right hand in the first round and from there he got very cautious.  But he’s Barrera.  I still had that in my mind.  It wasn’t until later that I realized I was just as good.  I should have taken those risks earlier.  My confidence is totally there now.  I won’t be hesitant because I know now that I can take those risks.”

Barrera has seen and heard all this before.  But one of the hallmarks of his greatness as a fighter is that he doesn’t underestimate opponents.  He may have been caught a little off guard by Juarez considering that Rocky was a substitute for the injured Jesus Chavez or, and Barrera acknowledges that the day will come, he may be slowing down.

“Retirement is obviously coming,” he says with a smile, “but not this year.  One bad performance and the press just writes me off.  You did it after I lost to Pacquiao.  You did it way back when I lost to Junior Jones.  It doesn’t bother me.  My mind is completely focused on Juarez.  There may be other fights out there but I’m focused on this one.”

That other fight out there is obviously a rematch with Manny Pacquiao who stopped Barrera in the 11th round back in November of 2003.  Pacquiao is scheduled to fight a rubber match with Erik Morales, Barrera’s other nemesis, in November of this year.  The winners of these two fights, Barrera – Juarez and Morales – Pacquiao, will probably meet sometime around April of next year.  At least that’s the way it should work out.  In boxing the only certainty is that nothing is certain at all.

“I would love to fight Manny again,” Barrera says.  But he then adds, “I’ll be rooting for Morales.  He’s Mexican.”

Although he maintains a high respect for Morales as a fighter he finds his Tijuana counterpart arrogant and dislikes him.  “We’re not friendly.  I respect him as an excellent boxer, as a warrior, but as a person I don’t understand him.”

Barrera’s Mexican pride precedes his own sense of fistic self-evaluation.  In regards to his place in the Mexican pantheon of fighters Barrera is again quick to acknowledge others.  “All of them, from Carlos Zarate, Ruben Olivares, Miguel Canto and Pipino Cuevas were great.  Of course Julio Ceasar Chavez was probably the biggest.  I grew up watching him.  I would place myself behind all of them.”

Regardless of whether he wins his rematch with Juarez his humble nature will not keep him from standing alongside, not behind, those fighters in the boxing hall of fame when he ends his illustrious career.  His credentials are already written in stone.  And for Rocky Juarez a second chance to not only prove he belongs in the ring with Marco Antonio Barrera but to prove that he can beat him makes for a great pay per view event this Saturday night.