Boxers Have Distinct Agendas

For boxer Marco Antonio Barrera, it’s about notches. Tonight’s main event at Staples Center is a chance to add one of what he hopes will be seven notches to his newest championship belt.

For Rocky Juarez, it’s about the belt itself, about the chance to finally be recognized as the best in his division.

For Barrera, it’s about biding time until he again faces Erik Morales or Manny Pacquiao in another career-defining bout.

For Juarez, it’s about time to finally get beyond the losses and the controversy and define his own career.

When the opening bell rings tonight and the two come from opposite corners to battle for Barrera’s World Boxing Council super-featherweight title, they also will be coming from the opposite ends of life in the ring.

Now 32, Barrera has fought 65 times as a professional (61-4, 42 knockouts) dating to 1989, has taken on the biggest names in the lower-weight divisions, and has rebounded from two losses to Junior Jones nearly a decade ago that might have ended the career of a lesser fighter. Instead, Barrera came back to effectively retire Naseem Hamed with a dominating performance and has won two of three close matches against Morales in a bitter rivalry that has left both men with anger toward each other.

Along the way, Barrera has transformed himself from the brawler who knocked Kennedy McKinney down five times and went down once himself in an unforgettable 1996 victory at the Forum to the smooth boxer who was able to combine power and finesse in the Morales fights.

Barrera has twice won the World Boxing Organization super-bantamweight championship. He also could have reigned as the WBC featherweight champion after beating Morales in their second fight, but Barrera chose to refuse that belt rather than pay the sanctioning fees.

Barrera felt differently after beating Morales in November 2004 for the WBC super-featherweight title. He accepted that belt and has successfully defended it twice.

Barrera, who weighed in at 129 pounds Friday, says he wants seven more fights -- perhaps a fourth match against Morales or a chance to avenge a 2003 knockout loss to Pacquiao -- before retiring. Morales and Pacquiao are tentatively scheduled to fight each other in October.

“Right now,” Barrera said through an interpreter, “I’m only thinking about Rocky Juarez.”

Juarez (25-1, 18) has spent a lot of time thinking about Bekzat Sattarkhanov, who beat Juarez for the gold medal in a controversial match in the 2000 Olympics, and Humberto Soto, who handed Juarez his only professional loss last August.

“It’s been a matter of just accepting what was given to me,” said Juarez, who weighed in at 129 1/4 .

The 26-year-old, who has been fighting professionally for five years, was given this opportunity to face a high-profile opponent when Barrera’s fight against International Boxing Federation lightweight champion Jesus Chavez, scheduled for late March, had to be canceled when Chavez injured a shoulder in training camp.

“Every Latino fight fan looks up to Barrera,” Juarez said. “I’ve always been a big fan of his because of his determination and heart. That’s why it’s a big honor for me to be fighting him.”

The odds favor Barrera, a respected veteran and master boxer going up against a hard puncher who has had less than half the bouts.

But Juarez figures he is destined to be a champion. After all, Rocky is not his nickname, but his given middle name. He was originally going to be named Rocky Marciano Juarez, but the Marciano was dropped. Ricardo Rocky Juarez is determined to prove his parents were wise to retain the Rocky name.

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Tonight’s semi-main event is also a super-featherweight title fight, with WBO champion Jorge Rodrigo Barrios (45-2-1, 32) of Argentina defending against Janos Nagy (24-0, 14) of Hungary.