It’s still a long wait for Marco Antonio Barrera before he faces Manny Pacquiao but waiting is what MAB has to do at the moment. Everybody wants to face the PACMAN and they’ve all lined up. After Oscar Larios, Erik Morales will have his day of redemption possibly in November or December. Most likely to be next after EM is Barrera.

If Barrera still has the belt when he meets Pacquiao and if he beats Pacquiao in the process, that would be the defining factor to his being the champion at the moment. Pacquiao’s rating in most pound-for-pound lists is higher than that of Barrera, a sort of mystery because Barrera has the belt. If Barrera beats PACMAN, then the Baby-faced Assasin shall book himself to be the best superfeatherweight in the world without a doubt . . . whether there’s a third meeting or none.

Barrera has to erase the humiliation he suffered in the hands of Pacquiao in 2003. Some experts believe that he lost that fight even before he stepped into the ring. News of a metal plate in his skull and a freak forest fire in his training camp hampered his preparations and the effects were sort of evident during the fight.

Come the next fight, Manny Pacquiao should expect a different Marco Antonio Barrera. But if Barrera loses to the PACMAN, the meaning in my mind is just as good as the meaning in yours.

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