After 56 professional bouts, Johnny Tapia finally tasted defeat. Sure, he had been announced as the loser in two incredibly close contests with Paulie Ayala. Yes, many observers thought his recent victory over Manuel Medina was a gift decision. But even after these minor blemishes, Tapia could rightly say that no man had ever beaten him up in the ring. That all changed after Tapia stepped into the ring with featherweight monster Marco Antonio Barrera. Over the course of 12 lopsided rounds, Tapia was out-boxed, out-punched, out-landed and out-classed by an opponent superior in every single category. Maybe Tapia, now 35, was too old. Maybe, at 126 pounds, he was too small. Or maybe Marco Antonio Barrera was just that good; good enough to completely dominate one of the most indomitable fighters in the history of the sport. Prior to the bout, Tapia seemed to relish his role as a 4-1 underdog. His fiery spirit and unyielding determination had more than a few pundits questioning the line that Vegas' numbers-crunchers had posted on the non-title contest. But once the opening bell rang, Barrera attacked Tapia with a scientific brutality that quickly reminded onlookers why the Mexican superstar was recognized as the best featherweight in the world, belt or no belt. Pumping a fierce jab flush into Tapia's forehead and mouth, Barrera quickly established himself as the bigger man, the stronger man, and, sadly, the better man. After only 60 seconds of action, wherein Barrera's piston jab was followed by a quick hook and crunching uppercuts, it was clear that Johnny Tapia was in for a long night. Conventional wisdom declared that the younger, stronger Barrera should attack the aging legend early. Barrera complied, but without the reckless abandon that characterized his brutal destructions of McKinney, Hamed and (at times) Morales. Instead of bull-rushing the bull, Barrera used the sweet science to deliver his arsenal. He circled the ring, made Tapia try and come to him, and forced Johnny to try and counter his superior reach. Only one Tapia right hand was able to land over Barrera's perpetually-thrusting jab, and the shot glanced off of Barrera's chin without any ill effect. A few other Tapia flurries got a momentary rise from the Las Vegas crowd, but the bursts were well short of landing. Meanwhile, Barrera's own combinations were landing clean. When Tapia returned to his corner after the first round, his eyes were already puffy and the first of many dark red abrasions had surfaced on his face. Tapia's gameplan unraveled immediately. His best chance at victory was to use his footwork to move around the ring, fire at an oncoming Barrera, and then move out of harm's way. But Tapia was too fired up to avoid toe-to-toe exchanges... and Barrera was not a willing participant in the footwork portion of the strategy. Before round two began, Tapia winked at trainer Freddie Roach and told him that he would draw Barrera in. Instead, it was the crafty Barrera who was moving backwards, forcing the shorter-armed Tapia to come to him. Early in the second round, Tapia stepped to Barrera's retreat only to walk into a jaw-caving left uppercut. As Barrera followed up with a series of jabs, the strength differential was immediately clear. Tapia had not exactly carved out a reputation as a banger at his prime weight of 115. Now three full divisions removed from the super-flyweight ranks, Tapia was being stopped in his tracks by the loud cracking blows of a full-fledged featherweight. Barrera hit Johnny with a series of clean blows in the second round, allowing his challenger to touch him only with a couple of body shots near round's end. 59 fights into his own long career, Barrera has transformed himself from a brawling Julio Cesar Chavez clone into something more: a boxer with power, a technician with an mean streak, a ring general with a penchant for crippling attacks. In the third round, Barrera continued to use his reach to keep Tapia away, and in the fourth, Barrera's incredible jab was followed by more telling blows. A single Barrera right hand pushed Tapia back three steps on his heels. Patented bodywork plugged at Tapia's tattooed ribs. Uppercuts and short hooks scraped Tapia's face. On those occasions when Tapia would leap in with overhand rights and quick three-punch combinations of his own, Barrera would simply glide back a few steps, well out of Johnny's range. This was a one-sided fight. The fifth round put an exclamation point on Barrera's outstanding effort. As Tapia tried his own jab (only to have the punches barely reach the tips of Barrera's gloves), he was answered by hard, powerful jabs to the face. Barrera followed up these jabs with power shots that time and again made a frustrated Tapia pause, stand up straight and chide himself. At times, the machismo in Tapia overflowed, and after eating a particularly hard shot he would drop his hands and stick out his chin. In the past, this move has not only riled up fans in the seats, but riled up opponents. Barrera was having none of it, and he calmly and methodically continued to beat down Tapia after each overt gesture. Tapia was out of sorts, unable to find his rhythm. Marco Antonio closed out a dominant round five by circling Tapia for a full 20 seconds, landing a circling jab repeatedly until the bell forced him to stop. With five solid rounds in the bank for Barrera, Tapia desperately needed to shift the momentum. In a display of pure will power, the smaller Tapia rushed at Barrera early in the sixth and pushed him into the ropes. Now forehead-to-forehead, Tapia did his best work. While Barrera held his gloves to his face, Tapia repeatedly ripped clean hooks to the body, pausing only to come up with fierce uppercuts. At first, Barrera seemed only to be resting on the ropes, unfazed by Tapia's rib shots. But after a few uppercuts snapped his head back, Barrera tried to fight back. He tagged Johnny with a body shot of his own, and tried to push him off with a shoulder to find range for a more telling blow... but Tapia only pushed back in and continued his assault. For a full minute, Tapia trapped Barrera in one place, unleashing quick punches to the sides. After several more attempts to push Tapia off, Barrera succeeded. Tapia slipped on a wet canvas after one push, momentarily falling to his back. Enraged by the tactic, Tapia leapt to his feet and tried to swarm Barrera. But referee Jay Nady stepped in between the men to wipe Tapia's gloves after the slip. The pause gave Barrera a chance to shift to center ring, and when a still fired-up Tapia charged him to resume the action, Barrera planted a perfect right cross to Tapia's nose. The punch started a fountain of blood from Tapia's nose and stopped the rally. Barrera circled away for a bit and eventually regained control. He punished Tapia with severe uppercuts to close the round, smearing Tapia's blood across his face. Barrera's heavy-punch rally could have tipped the round back in his favor, but Boxing Chronicle scored the round for Tapia for his early attack on the ropes. The sixth round was the only round we would score for Tapia, as Barrera regained control by jabbing and moving in the seventh and reintroducing power shots in the eighth. Tapia tried his best to counter Barrera in these rounds. He would feint with his arms, his head, and even his crotch before rushing in with windmill punches and wild flurries. But Barrera was rarely caught clean, and answered every landed punch with at least two stronger shots of his own. The furious punishment only pumped more adrenaline into Tapia, and in a weird way he seemed to be enjoying the exchanges that he was so clearly losing. Back in his corner after an eighth round that was controlled easily by Barrera, Tapia could be seen kissing his cornermen on the cheek. Before he stepped out to start round nine, he implored to his trainer, "C'mon Freddie, smile!" Wise to stay off the ropes, Barrera now consciously kept the fight at center ring. He also kept Tapia off balance with a combination of coming forward and moving away. Barrera would slip Tapia's swings, then step in with hard rights and unobstructed hooks that loudly landed on Tapia's face. Barrera's defense was masterful in this round, and Tapia seemed to tire after missing most of his three and four punch combos. The tenth round was one of the most devastating of Tapia's career. Encouraged by his own corner to attack more frequently, Barrera opened up on Tapia in round ten, again making Tapia stop in place and mug to the crowd after each of a succession of thudding punches. Again, Barrera's effectiveness surged Tapia's energy, and he ended the round by letting his hands go and flurrying on Barrera. But Tapia was swinging wildly and he again missed nearly all of his punches. After the bell sounded, an amped-up Tapia howled to the crowd. Perhaps it was an attempt to sway the judges into thinking Tapia was satisfied with his work. Instead it looked like a half-crazed man who was screaming with pleasure at the amount of punishment he was absorbing. By now, Tapia was well behind on the cards, but he never gave up. In round eleven, Barrera continued to focus on power punches, following his continuing jab with some brilliant uppercuts from both hands, and a series of hooks to the body. Tapia's only answer was to fire back body shots of his own, more than a few of which landed on Barrera, but none of which slowed or stopped Barrera from attacking. The final round continued at the pace of the previous rounds: the smaller Tapia unable to reach Barrera, the bigger Barrera easily smacking Tapia around the ring. At one point Barrera caught Tapia with a short hook and Tapia turned away from his opponent holding his right eye. Tapia claimed that he had been butted, but the more likely culprit was a thumb or lace to the eye socket. Tapia's right eye puffed up and darkened quickly, and after a brief break when Nady claimed he saw the phantom butt, the action resumed. Upset at the perceived foul, Tapia tried to attack Barrera with one final surge, but it was the Mexican superstar who now fought as though he needed the knockout. Barrera really let his hands go in the middle of this round, battering Tapia with three punch combo after three punch combo. To his credit, Tapia stood toe to toe with Barrera, although again almost all his punches missed wildly. The final 20 seconds of the round saw Barrera absolutely hammering Tapia with a wicked, and unanswered, flurry of blows. Eventually the bell sounded to halt the carnage. Tapia merely stood in place. Barrera, calm as ever, casually walked to his corner and slowly raised his arms in victory. Boxing Chronicle scored the bout 119-109 giving only the sixth round to Tapia. The official scores were only slightly more generous, with two judges scoring 118-110 for Barrera and one voting an unlikely 116-112 for Barrera. As the totals were read, Tapia winced with embarrassment at the lopsided nature his defeat. Without question, this was the worst beating he had ever taken. CompuBox statistics tallied over 330 punches landed on Tapia, far more than any opponent had ever landed on him over 12 rounds. Tapia's face was a collection of scrapes, bruises, swelling and abrasions. Barrera looked unmarked. And so Marco Antonio Barrera re-affirmed his place as "king of the featherweights." Although he was always favored to defeat Tapia, few expected such a one-sided contest. The victory, which pushed Barrera's record to 56-3/39, set Barrera up to face the winner of the Erik Morales-Paulie Ayala contest, scheduled for two weeks after this night. That bout may be a replay, with the bigger featherweight dominating the moving-up-in-weight bantam. A Morales victory could secure a third Barrera-Morales contest... and who wouldn't want to see that? After the bout, Tapia hardly acted like a man defeated. Although he didn't claim that he had won the bout, Tapia was nonetheless ecstatic. He smiled broadly, complimented Barrera profusely, and unwisely mentioned his desire for a rematch. While a second Barrera bout is completely unwarranted, Tapia expressed no desire to taper off his ring career. Although he's getting a little long in the tooth, is perhaps unsuited for the featherweight division, and already has millions in the bank, it's unlikely that Johnny Tapia (now 52-3-2/28) will retire. Boxing is all he knows. He will be back. Let's just hope that he finds an opponent more suited to his abilities. .....Chris Bushnell (Please send comments to us at: BoxingChronicle@aol.com)