Mexico's Marco Antonio Barrera boxed his way to a unanimous decision over Rocky Juarez on Saturday, pleasing no one but himself with a workmanlike performance to keep his WBC super featherweight title in a fight that drew boos from the crowd for a lack of action.
The fight was a rematch of their first fight in May in Los Angeles when Juarez left the ring thinking he had a draw, only to find out in his dressing room that the scores had been added wrong and that he had actually lost the decision.
There was no problem with the scoring in the second fight, with all three judges favoring Barrera in a bout that ended the same way it began -- with Barrera controlling the action and Juarez chasing him around the ring trying to land a big left hook.
PHOTO: AFP
"I gave him a boxing lesson and that's exactly what I wanted to do," Barrera said. "I learned never to fight on the level of my opponent."
One judge had Barerra winning 117-111, while he was favored by the other two 115-113. The Associated Press had Barrera ahead 116-112.
Barrera, the 32-year-old Mexican champion who has been in many ring wars, chose to box this time, and it paid off when he frustrated Juarez from the opening round on.
"I went in with the same game plan as before. I felt like I was the aggressor again," Juarez said. "He didn't want to fight. He never hurt me, not once."
The fight had none of the drama of the first and very little of its action. There were no knockdowns, no big punches, not much of anything that the crowd of 10,421 at the MGM Grand Hotel expected in the rematch.
The most heated action came at the end of the fight when Barrera (63-4) taunted Juarez, the 2000 Olympic silver medalist, in the final seconds and then tried to go after him after the final bell before being restrained.
Juarez (25-3) pressed the fight the entire way, but he constantly missed on big punches.
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