Barrera Has Formula to Floor Ayala

Mexican featherweight Marco Antonio Barrera wanted to put on a strong showing for his fans Saturday night in his first Los Angeles-area bout in eight years.

With a vocal crowd cheering him on, he didn’t disappoint.

Barrera, 30, showed he still has plenty of boxing left in him by scoring a 10th-round knockout against Paulie Ayala in a non-title bout in front of 5,732 at the Home Depot Center in Carson.

Barrera (58-4, 41 knockouts) was the picture of precision. After staging a tactical fight in the early rounds, when he laid back and was content to counterpunch, he unleashed a barrage of body shots to twice knock down Ayala in the eighth round before finishing him with a combination at 2:34 of the 10th. Referee Pat Russell stopped the fight at the request of Ayala’s corner.

Ayala (35-3, 12) fought gamely but was vulnerable to Barrera’s punishing body punches. Ayala, 34 and a former world champion, indicated he would consider retirement.

“I’m going to talk to my wife Letty,” he said. “I’m going to pray. I don’t want to wind up being a punching bag.”

Barrera had trained diligently for Saturday’s fight. He wanted to erase the memory of his last outing, a one-sided loss to Manny Pacquiao in November.

“The hard work showed and it paid off,” Barrera said.

His reward could be a chance to regain the title against Injin Chi, the World Boxing Council champion. Other possible opponents include Pacquiao and Erik Morales.

Barrera was leading on all three judges’ cards when he took command in the eighth round. He landed a five-punch combination, capped by a left hook to the body, to crumple Ayala to one knee. Later in the round, Barrera delivered consecutive left hooks to the ribs to again send Ayala to his knee.

“He’s a good counterpuncher,” Ayala said. “On the last knockdown, he caught me very hard in the ribs. It hurt bad. I lost my breathing.”

Ayala earned Barrera’s respect by coming back to land hard punches at the end of the eighth round and in the ninth.

“He was very brave,” Barrera said. “He showed a lot of courage. Even though I knocked him down twice, I thought he had a lot left. I didn’t want to risk anything.”

Ayala, who lost a unanimous decision to Morales in November 2002, said, “Erik Morales is a harder puncher, but Barrera hits very hard to the body.”

The middleweight bout involving former U.S. Olympians Jermain Taylor and Raul Marquez was a case of a younger fighter on the way up in his career dominating a veteran on the way out.

Taylor, 25, was in control from the opening bell and knocked out Marquez, 32, in the ninth round to claim the WBC Continental Americas title. Shortly afterward, Marquez announced his retirement.

“That’s it for sure,” said Marquez, whose record fell to 35-3. “I’ve got the [1992] Olympics and I’ve got [TV] commentating. That’s it.”

Marquez’s corner stopped the fight after the ninth, when the former world champion was knocked down late in the round by a right uppercut from the quicker Taylor (21-0, 16), who won every round on all three judges’ cards.