LAS VEGAS (AFP) — Filipino boxing hero Manny Pacquiao continued his mastery over veteran Marc Antonio Barrera Saturday with unanimous 12-round decision in their super featherweight fight.
It was a rematch of their 2003 bout which was also won by Pacquiao who dominated Barrera with superior hand speed and harder punches.
"I am satisfied. I tried to give a good fight," Pacquiao said. "I had to be careful because he is still a good fighter and not an easy opponent."
All three judges gave the decision to Pacquiao by a wide margin with Glenn Trowbridge and Jerry Roth scoring it 118-109 and Tom Schreck scoring it 115-112.
Pacquiao has blitzed through the best fighters Mexico has had to offer since 2003, including Erik Morales, who knocked he out twice, Barrera, Oscar Larios, Emanuel Lucero, Hector Velazquez and Jorge Solis.
The hard-hitting southpaw has only lost once in his last 21 bouts, a close decision in 2005 to Morales in their first encounter.
The 28-year-old Pacquiao (45-3-2, 35 KOs) was the more aggressive of the two trading blows with the underdog Barrera in the centre of the ring and often beating the 33-year-old Mexican veteran to the punch at the Mandalay Bay hotel and casino.
"I always believed I could beat him," Pacquiao said.
Barrera, who plans to retire after the bout, tried to engineer a tactical fight but looked slower and more awkward. But unlike 2003, when his corner threw in the towel, this time Barrera hung on to remain standing at the end of the final round.
Barrera's corner continuously told their fighter he was winning the 130-pound fight in the early rounds even though he was behind on the judges' scorecards. In the later rounds they begged him to snap out of his defensive mode and throw more punches.
Pacquiao looked the stronger of the two fighters, especially in the 11th and 12 rounds.
"It was hard. He had a strong defence," Barrera said.
Barrera became frustrated in the 11th and had one point deducted by the referee for throwing a right hand at Pacquiao during a break in the action.
Barrera (63-6, 42 KOs) also suffered a cut to his right cheek in the round which his handlers had to work on to stop the bleeding before sending him out for the final round.
Barrera tried to blame the loss on a head butt which opened the cut.
"We boxed him well and I dominated and then I got a head butt and everything changed," Barrera said.
Pacquiao also dominated Barrera in their first meeting on November 11, 2003 in San Antonio, Texas, winning by an 11th-round TKO.
Barrera is a future Hall of Famer, having defeated many of the top fighters in his divisions, including current or former world champions Morales and Naseem Hamed, both undefeated when he faced them, Paulie Ayala, Kevin Kelley, Johnny Tapia and Kennedy McKinney.
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