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Last night at the MEN Arena in Manchester, England, lightweight Amir Khan stepped up to take on former multi-weight world champion Marco Antonio Barrera and came away with the biggest win of his career.
At 35 years of age, former super bantam, featherweight and super feather champion Barrera proved just too small and faded to deal with the handspeed and size of the much taller 22 year old Khan.
While Barrera’s experience and acumen did lead to a few good shots on Khan, the Mexican veteran wasn’t able to get out of the way of the Englishman’s lightning quick combinations and sharp right hand.
As the bout wore in, Barrera did seem however, to be getting used to the timing of Khan’s efforts and was beginning to force his rival onto the back foot but by this time a bad hairline cut suffered by Barrera earlier due to an unintentional clash of heads had worsened and the contest was called off at 2:36 of the fifth round.
Amir Khan was declared the winner on scores of 50-45 twice and 50-44 and goes to 20-1 (15), adding the WBO Intercontinental crown to his existing WBA International and Commonwealth Lightweight titles.
Barrera drops to 65-7 (43) and after 20 years as a pro, could be headed to a well earned retirement.
The undercard was full of upsets.
WBO Super Feather Champion, Nicky Cook, 29-2 (16), was hammered into an ex-titlist as undefeated challenger Roman Martinez, 22-0-1 (13), of Puerto Rico KO’d the Londoner with left hooks in the fourth frame.
Former WBO Cruiserweight Champion Enzo Maccarinelli, 29-3 (22), was winning his Interim WBO title contest with Ola Afolabi, 14-1-3 (6), until the American based Briton landed a flush right hand that KO’d the Welshman in the ninth.
Commonwealth Light Middleweight Champion Bradley Pryce, 27-7 (17), was completely dominated by challenger Matthew Hall, 22-1 (15), who simply outslugged the Welshman and dropped him three times in the second for the stoppage victory.
Super middleweight Paul Smith, 26-1 (15), stopped Rashid Matumla, 38-11-1 (29), in the second to cage the vacant WBA International title.
Lightweight Steven Bell, 17-1-2 (5), outpointed spoiler Youssef Al Hamidi, 5-15-1 (1), over six rounds.
