BARRERA KEEPS GETTING BETTER
JIROV DESTROYS LETTERLOUGH

Barrera blocks a body shotAny time Marco Antonio Barrera appears on HBO's Boxing After Dark, you're in for a treat. The Mexican superstar has co-starred in some of that program's finest moments, including the memorable war with Kennedy McKinney that launched the show in 1996. Barrera's September 8, 2001 appearance couldn't match that battle in terms of action or drama... but this is a different Barrera. The old Barrera brawled, left his chin open with looping punches, and came at his opposition like a bull. The new Barrera is a matador. His opponent, Enrique Sanchez, was a former IBF junior featherweight champion and a familiar rival from the gyms of Mexico City. Yet, Sanchez could barely lay a glove on the elusive conqueror of Hamed. Barrera had no such problems, and after six brutal rounds of one-sided punishment, Sanchez wisely remained on his stool. And this was just one of two dominating performances on this evening.

To his credit, Sanchez pressed the action in the bout's opening moments, coming at Barrera behind a stiff right jab from the southpaw stance. But Barrera had done his homework, and wasted no time countering over Sanchez' retracting jab with a hard jab of his own. While most conventional fighters rely on the lead right to offset a southpaw, Barrera showed that the job could also be done with the left. Each time Sanchez pumped out his jab, he tasted a harder counter jab in return. And Barrera wasted no time uncorking his patented double left hook to the liver. Oh, sure, there was some right hands thrown, too. Barrera clocked Sanchez several times with a lead right ... but he was really only getting warmed up.

The story of the fight wasn't just Barrera's boxing skills, but his footwork. This night he glided around the ring. Barrera repeatedly stepped towards Sanchez, unleashed a loud wrecking ball to the body, and then floated back out to a distance beyond Sanchez' reach. Sanchez' jab was now reduced to a range finder, as Barrera stepped to the side and threw a three punch combination. In fact, Sanchez wasn't credited with landing a single jab in this round, whereas Barrera scored with almost everything he threw. A crisp left uppercut caught Sanchez' attention as the second wound down, but it was a crunching counter right that sent the challenger reeling into a neutral corner on his heels. Barrera, once a relatively easy fighter to touch, had effortlessly slipped a Sanchez left before throwing the right, ensuring that Sanchez was off-balance when the blow landed. A Barrera flurry followed the Big Punch, but the round wore out before the ref could step in. Bad news for Sanchez.

Barrera continued his destruction in the third round, moving away from each Sanchez punch on his toes and then answering with a flush combination of his own. Midway through the round, Barrera slipped an identical Sanchez left and again responded with a heavy right counter. As before, Sanchez was leaning forward from his miss and caught the full brunt of Barrera's power while out of position. Sanchez was once again sent back on his heels, but there was no turnbuckle to catch him. His wobbly retreat ended with him falling to the canvas, and then bravely beating the count.

Sanchez downBarrera probably could have finished Sanchez off at this point, but wisely continued to box. Barrera's jab set up compact combinations that landed with deadly accuracy. Twice, Barrera's best shots drove a weakened Sanchez to the ropes. Each time, Sanchez mustered the will power to try and fight back, but again Barrera easily took a half step back and watched Sanchez' gloves miss him each time.

Sanchez was being completely outclassed by a fighter riding a wave of complete confidence, but he was still there to win. He began the fourth round with a renewed urgency, and landed his best blows of the night in the opening moments of this stanza. But Barrera was completely unfazed by Sanchez' efforts. If anything, he relished a few opportunities to open up in close quarters. A few quick exchanges served as evidence to the obvious: that Barrera was far and away the stronger puncher. This became clearer still as the fourth round entered it's final fifteen seconds. At center ring, Barrera put everything into a left hook that swept across Sanchez' face. Sanchez was stunned by the blow. He took a step back and dropped his hands. He looked like he wanted to take a knee, but couldn't remember how. After a two second delay, during which Barrera merely watched, Sanchez lowered himself to one-knee. By the time the count was complete, the fourth was over.

Sanchez' corner had been concerned about their man after the third, and looked ready to stop the fight after the fourth. They should have. Instead, they finally gave Sanchez "one more round." They should have gone with their instincts and saved their man more punishment. The fifth round was more of the same. Sanchez never stopped trying, but he simply couldn't land clean on Barrera. Meanwhile, he repeatedly found himself on the receiving end of a combination. Barrera was never satisfied to throw a single punch, and Sanchez often ate them all.

The fifth round was a candidate for a 10-8 round without a knockdown, and the sixth was no better. Barrera simply took his time, picked his spots, and landed clean. It was about as one-sided as it gets. Bleeding from the nose and mouth, Sanchez looked done as he returned to his stool after the sixth. His corner wisely decided that enough was enough, and the bout was stopped. Barrera TKO6.

Marco Antonio Barrera doesn't hold a belt, but he doesn't need one. He is the best featherweight in the world. He is the featherweight champion. Hamed, Morales, and the rest of the gang at 126 trail at a distant second. Barrera (now 54-3/39) will likely face both Morales and Hamed in 2002, and why would anyone pick against him?

Letterlough lands a rare punchAs good as Barrera was this night, the big story was the coming-out party for Vassily Jirov. The IBF cruiserweight champion hadn't established himself as a big name, partly because of the lack of talent in the 190 lb. division, and partly because of a few mediocre outings since winning the title. But the flabby Jirov who recently fought a non-title fight at 200 lbs. was nowhere to be seen. Instead, Jirov looked trim and focused. He should have been. His opponent was the hard-hitting light heavyweight Julian "Mr. KO" Letterlough. It was expected to be a real battle.

But instead of a war, we got an exhibition. Jirov battered Letterlough for seven and a half rounds with a stiff jab, head shots from a variety of angles, and a penetrating body attack. The body work started in the opening round and almost immediately weakened Letterlough. The southpaw Jirov has a slick move where he throws a looping left from shoulder height. At first, it looks like a head shot. But as an opponent puts up his hands to block the blow, the punch descends to stomach level. With a conventional fighter standing opposite him, Jirov is able to repeatedly land this punch to the center of the stomach. In the first round, Letterlough walked into this punch a number of times, and after three minutes he had almost had enough.

Weakened by the body shot power punches, Letterlough was caught with a left hook in the final minute of the first round. He quickly answered with a hook of his own, and for a moment the exchange looked to be even. But Jirov had a second reply, and buried another hook to the stomach. Letterlough was hurt, and he retreated to a neutral corner and covered his head with both gloves. Jirov now teed off on him, landing several clean shots before a bell saved Letterlough from a first-round stoppage on the ropes. It wouldn't get any better for Mr. KO.

After Jirov began the second round with a heavy jab and more clubbing body shots, Letterlough's legs looked gone. Twice Jirov clipped Letterlough with a glancing right hook, and twice a rubber-legged Letterlough stumbled across the ring a few steps. Each stumble allowed Jirov to let his hands go and follow up with shots upstairs and down. Letterlough somehow mustered the strength to land a stiff right hand on Jirov between these assaults, but the former Soviet amateur star was unfazed.

Jirov had found a successful formula, and he continued to apply it in the third. His jab was routinely caught by Letterlough's nose, and each and every body shot landed with a sickening thud. Half-way through the round, Jirov reeled back and landed one such body shot on Letterlough. Letterlough didn't move, and so Jirov quickly reached back and drove home another huge shot to the navel. Letterlough continued to stand in place, and for a moment Jirov stood admiring his own work... after all, he was making it look easy. In that moment of self-adulation, Jirov stopped punching, and Letterlough jumped on him.

Jirov goes for the finishLetterlough began with a left hook, and swiveled a surprised Jirov's head. Trying to make the most of his opportunity, Letterlough now let his hands go. For 15 seconds, he threw violent punches, and even landed a few. The rally appeared to be on. But Jirov cleared his head mid-flurry and landed a stunning counter hook just as Letterlough looked to be turning the tide in his favor. The punch staggered Letterlough in place, and allowed Jirov to quickly regain control of the round. Jirov immediately returned to the body, and Letterlough dropped his hands. Taking his time, Jirov pounded Letterlough with a throw-one-land-one offense that was paying dividends. Again the final bell seemed to save Letterlough from an impending kayo. Letterlough had logged his best round, but Jirov clearly captured it, 10-9.

With Letterlough weakened, Jirov opted to box. From a safe distance, Jirov pumped the jab, fired to the body, and now mixed in uppercuts with great success. Letterlough proved his toughness by pressing forward under fire to force the bout into close quarters during the round, but the change of style didn't help him much. Shoulder-to-shoulder, Jirov was only able to fire body shots more frequently. These blows hurt Letterlough even more, and allowed Jirov to once again tee off with big power shots near the end of the round.

Jirov may have needed a breather, because his offense waned in the sixth round. Letterlough was content to not get pounded, and appeared to also take the round off. Jirov banked the round on an infrequent jab, while Letterlough loaded up only a few power shots, and widely missed them all.

In the seventh round, the slow pace continued... until Jirov unleashed a wicked left cross that again rocked Letterlough and sent him to the ropes. You guessed it: Letterlough took more punishment from a calm and collected Jirov as the round wore out. Not a good pattern.

To be honest, Letterlough was done after that big left in the seventh. He stumbled back to his corner after the flurry and looked only slightly recovered when the eighth round began. Within moments, Jirov was loading up a big right hook when Letterlough aimlessly stumbled towards him. The hook slammed into Letterlough's head and sent him retreating to the ropes more quickly than at any time before. Jirov knew that this was a surefire opportunity to close the show, and he did so in highlight-reel fashion. Following Letterlough to the ropes, Jirov fired a right hook and a left cross. But when both punches were deflected by the hands-over-face defense, he simply dipped left and fired a left uppercut. The first such attempt landed partially. The second uppercut ripped through Letterlough's gloves and sent his head flying back. Referee Jay Nady was already about to stop the bout, and immediately jumped in as Letterlough's head nearly came off. There was no protest over the stoppage. If anything, Letterlough looked relieved. Jirov KO8.

And so Vassily Jirov (30-0/27) has done what no fighter since Evander Holyfield has been able to do: make the cruiserweight division look interesting. His destruction of a well-regarded opponent was only half the story... it was the manner in which he did it. A power-punching southpaw who works the body is a rarity. We will see Jirov again. And believe it or not, he has a few interesting opponents. Virgil Hill is a new titlist in the division and might provide an interesting battle of jabs. Juan Carlos Gomez, a virtual unknown in the U.S., may now have to step up to prove he's still the best cruiserweight in the world. And James Toney, the one-time pound for pound great, would be a good payday... if he can make the weight. We hate to say it, but the cruiserweight division is looking more interesting than the heavyweight division... well, almost.

.....Chris Bushnell

BOXING CHRONICLE.COM SCORECARDS:

ROUND

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

TOTAL

BARRERA

10

10

10

10

10

10

TKO

SANCHEZ

9

9

8

8

9

9

ROUND

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

TOTAL

JIROV

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

KO

LETTERLOUGH

9

9

9

9

9

9

9

 

© 2001 Chris Bushnell. All rights reserved.

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