Barrera Takes a Hell of a Beating
November 17: Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines scored a huge upset by stopping Marco Antonio Barrera in the 11th round.
Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines, with a remarkable display of sustained aggression, scored a huge upset by stopping Marco Antonio Barrera in the 11th round of a non-title fight in San Antonio, Texas.
Such was the one-sided nature of the beating sustained by the 29-year-old Mexican, in front of more than 10,000 stunned fans at the Alamodrome, that there was immediately speculation he may retire.
Barrera, regarded as the world's best featherweight after beating his Mexican rival Erik Morales and Britain's Naseem Hamed, was floored in the third and 11th rounds and was so far behind the 24-year-old southpaw on points that his brother Jorge tearfully threw in the towel.
"There were a lot of distractions before the fight," said Barrera , alluding to the controversy over news that he had brain surgery six years ago. Also, he had to move his training camp from the mountains of California to Los Angeles because of bush fires.
But Barrera was forced to concede the younger man's superiority. "He punches hard and he's a great fighter. I couldn't see a lot of things. I don't know what went wrong, but that wasn't me in there."
Sheffield's Johnny Nelson confounded his critics by retaining the World Boxing Organisation version of the cruiserweight title for the 11th time, with a majority decision over the German Alexander Petkovic in Bayreuth, Germany.
The 36-year-old was given the fight by a two-round margin on two of the judges' cards while the third, surprisingly, saw a contest which Nelson appeared to dominate as a draw.
Nelson had come into the bout, his first for a year, talking about retirement after a summer in which he had police protection over kidnap threats. But on Saturday night he was happily contemplating extending a professional career which beganin 1986.
"I knew I could beat him with just my jab and I knew I didn't have to knock him out. I trusted the judges," said Nelson, emerging without a mark on his face.
"The kid was too green. I can go on as long as I want, fighting once a year. I know I could beat Roy Jones with just the basics, but I know that fight is not going to happen. So I will just carry on taking out whoever they put in front of me."
Such was the one-sided nature of the beating sustained by the 29-year-old Mexican, in front of more than 10,000 stunned fans at the Alamodrome, that there was immediately speculation he may retire.
Barrera, regarded as the world's best featherweight after beating his Mexican rival Erik Morales and Britain's Naseem Hamed, was floored in the third and 11th rounds and was so far behind the 24-year-old southpaw on points that his brother Jorge tearfully threw in the towel.
"There were a lot of distractions before the fight," said Barrera , alluding to the controversy over news that he had brain surgery six years ago. Also, he had to move his training camp from the mountains of California to Los Angeles because of bush fires.
But Barrera was forced to concede the younger man's superiority. "He punches hard and he's a great fighter. I couldn't see a lot of things. I don't know what went wrong, but that wasn't me in there."
Sheffield's Johnny Nelson confounded his critics by retaining the World Boxing Organisation version of the cruiserweight title for the 11th time, with a majority decision over the German Alexander Petkovic in Bayreuth, Germany.
The 36-year-old was given the fight by a two-round margin on two of the judges' cards while the third, surprisingly, saw a contest which Nelson appeared to dominate as a draw.
Nelson had come into the bout, his first for a year, talking about retirement after a summer in which he had police protection over kidnap threats. But on Saturday night he was happily contemplating extending a professional career which beganin 1986.
"I knew I could beat him with just my jab and I knew I didn't have to knock him out. I trusted the judges," said Nelson, emerging without a mark on his face.
"The kid was too green. I can go on as long as I want, fighting once a year. I know I could beat Roy Jones with just the basics, but I know that fight is not going to happen. So I will just carry on taking out whoever they put in front of me."
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