Juarez Loses Close Decision

LOS ANGELES, CA - Rocky Juarez waged the best tactical fight of his career against the World Boxing Council super-featherweight champion, Marco Antonio Barrera of Mexico.

But in keeping with the disappointment that has traced his entire boxing career, pro and amateur, Juarez came away disappointed Saturday night following the main event at Staples Center.

Juarez sent the champion reeling with a left hook in the first round and stood his ground well over the following 11.

He had Barrera on the retreat most of the fight and initially was awarded a draw when the results were read by ring announcer Michael Buffer.

But a miscalculation of the score of one judge, Ken Morita of Japan, was later corrected, giving Barrera the split-decision victory by a single point.

Juarez was back in the locker room when the corrected results were revealed. He was on the brink of outrage when he learned of the outcome.

"I can't believe this. Who could believe this?" he said. "I'm very upset and disappointed. I had been thinking to myself that 25- 1-1 was OK with the one draw against a legendary fighter like Barrera.

"But to come back in the dressing room and tell me that I've lost by a point is very disappointing, very upsetting. I'm in California, in Oscar De La Hoya country, in Barrera country.

"But I didn't feel I lost the fight. How they could give the fight to Barrera, who was backing up the whole time? I don't understand that. When I was walking out of the ring, everyone was saying, 'Good fight Rocky, good fight Rocky, you won.' I wonder how they would've reacted if they'd have known that I lost?"

A crowd of 10,167 saw the card co-promoted by Golden Boy Promotions, the organization headed by De La Hoya that is the chief promotional organization for Barrera.

The amended scores were revealed 20 minutes after the bout was complete and Barrera had tenuously held onto his championship. Judge Dwayne Ford had the bout scored 115-114 in favor of Juarez.

Morita's original tally of 114-114 was later amended to give the nod to Barrera 115-114. Judge Anek Hongtogkham of Thailand saw it 115-113 in favor of the champion. The Chronicle scored it 115-113 for Juarez.

Counter to most of his bouts, Juarez started strongly, taking the fight to the champion from the moment the opening bell sounded.

Although Juarez suffered a cut in the corner of his right eye by the end of the first round, the result of a busy left jab by the champion, he had Barrera reeling from a big left hook near the middle of the round.

Barrera, 62-4 (42 KOs) seemed frustrated through the first four rounds by Juarez's aggressive nature but put together a strong sixth round to get himself on track.

He peppered Juarez with an assortment of uppercuts, right crosses and left hooks and for one of the few times in the match had the Houstonian on the retreat until the closing bell.

Barrera had trouble keeping his mouthpiece in on two occasions and received a pair of warnings for low blows from referee Raul Caez Sr.

But over the "championship rounds," the last three, he completely shook himself out of the frustration and lethargy of earlier to pull out the close victory.

"I told everybody," said Barrera, "I knew from the beginning when we took this fight, this is a tough, young strong guy, a good puncher."

Another tough break

Juarez won a gold medal at the World Championships in 2002. But improper actions by the referee in the gold-medal match at the 2004 Olympics in Sydney, resulted in Juarez being denied a triumphant return to Houston.

Last July, Juarez was scheduled to fight South Korean Injin Chi for the International Boxing Federation featherweight title, but Chi was forced to withdraw after suffering an injury while training.

Humberto Soto was a last-minute replacement, and Soto, with Juarez admitting afterward he waged an improper fight, came away with a win by decision.

Sonny Banerjee
Editor-in-chief

Information from other publications and wire services was used in the compilation of this report.