McKinney Bruised, Battered, Finally Bows

What in the world would it take to stop Kennedy McKinney?

World Boxing Organization junior featherweight champion Marco Antonio Barrera had to be asking himself that question over and over Saturday night at the Forum.

Barrera threw his first punch at McKinney in Tuesday’s pre-fight news conference, when McKinney angered Barrera with his arrogance.

Barrera threw 875 punches at McKinney in their Saturday title fight, connecting on 436.

Barrera threw devastating right hands and bone-rattling lefts.

He knocked McKinney down five times officially and arguably twice more.

He pounded McKinney on the ropes and battered him across the ring.

Finally, the 875th punch, a solid right hand, sent McKinney to the canvas for the final time at 2:05 of the final round, enabling Barrera to retain his title and remain unbeaten, 40-0 with 28 knockouts.

Barrera was comfortably ahead on all three judges’ cards when the fight was stopped. One judge gave McKinney four rounds, one gave him three and the other judge gave him three, with one even.

But don’t think for a minute that the fight was one-sided.

McKinney (28-2-1, 17 knockouts), the former Olympic gold medalist and former International Boxing Federation junior middleweight champ, fought back all evening, even salvaging hope of a victory when he sent Barrera down with a right hand in the 10th round.

It was the kind of fight rarely seen. Few clinches, no cuts and no breathing room for either man. Many in the crowd of 7,912 spent more time on their feet than in their seats.

“I promised there would be no style,” Barrera said, “that I would go toe-to-toe, and I followed through on that prediction.

“This was my best win just because he did so much talking before.”

According to McKinney, 30, he lost because Barrera is eight years younger and McKinney had not fought since August.

“Age was a big difference,” McKinney said. “And I was rusty. My timing was off. He’s stronger than I thought he was. There is no doubt I fought a great fighter tonight. I didn’t think he could do what he did to me.”

McKinney went down twice in the eighth round. Before the second knockdown, he crumpled into the ropes and would have been down had he not clutched the upper rope with his left hand. That enabled Barrera to continue pounding him without pause.

McKinney went down again in the ninth from a flurry of punches, and twice in the final round, including the knockout. He also fell to the canvas earlier in that last round after a body blow, but referee Pat Russell ruled that was not a knockdown.

While there was plenty of action in the main event, most of the brief semi-main event consisted of Giovanni Andrade writhing around on the canvas in apparent pain after insisting he had been the victim of two low blows.

Johnny Tapia retained his WBO super flyweight title and stayed undefeated, 34-0-2 with 20 knockouts, by stopping Andrade (17-3, 12 knockouts) at 2:26 of the second round of their scheduled 12-rounder.

The first low blow came early in the second round and was clearly visible on the instant replay.

The next devastating blow struck by Tapia was against the side of Andrade’s head, sending him down.

After Andrade got back to his feet, Tapia hit him with two solid jabs, then threw a punch that landed, according to the replay camera, at Andrade’s waistband.

Nevertheless, the Brazilian fighter went down and clutched his groin.

Referee Raul Caiz wasn’t buying it. He counted Andrade out.

“He was just looking for a way out,” Tapia said.

“I don’t think the ref should have stopped it,” Andrade said. “I was ready to fight.”