By Dr. Peter Edwards

After hearing the recent announcement of Marco Antonio Barrera’s intentions of moving up in weight to face IBF lightweight champion Jesus Chavez, I could only wonder if the move is a wise career choice for Barrera.

Prior to his third meeting with Erik Morales, Barrera admitted that 130 pounds was above his natural fighting weight and he was better suited for 126 pounds. Since the move to 130, Barrera has managed to capture two out of the three major championships in the division. Currently the WBC and IBF lightweight champion, Barrera is making an unnecessary move to uncharted waters.

Some fans may look at this move and think that it’s only a 5-pound difference between the weight classes, but 5 pounds in boxing makes a world of difference. Take Erik Morales for example, a fighter who imposed his will, skill and more importantly his size on opponents for most of his career. That is until he decided to move up to 135 pounds and challenge what he thought would be an easy fight in Zahir Raheem.

Raheem was thrown in the bout as a stepping stone for Morales on route to an anticipated rematch with Manny Pacquiao in January. What Morales found out by the first round was that at 135 pounds, he no longer possessed the power and strength advantage that won him so many big fights from 122 to 130 pounds. Besides losing his pop, Morales was also much slower with his hands and the added weight affected his movement. If not for Morales’ iron chin and Raheem’s lack of power, we might of seen Erik get knocked out for the first time in his career as Raheem at various points of the fight was landing at will.

After the bout, Morales was not looking for another piece of the naturally bigger Raheem, he wanted to still move forward with his rematch against the smaller fighter in Pacquiao.

The move to 135 pounds is motivated by Mexican bragging rights. Marco wants to win a 4th world title in his 4th weight class, something that arch-rival Erik Morales has been unable to accomplish. Unlike Morales who began his career as a super bantamweight, Barrera started as a super flyweight. A leap to 135 pounds for Barrera is a much bigger step than what Morales tried to accomplish against Raheem.

Chavez is a stronger fighter than Raheem, not as good of a boxer, but puts a lot of aggressive pressure on his opponents. Chavez has a very good chin, he was only stopped once and that was against Floyd Mayweather Jr., the number one pound for pound fighter in the world. Early in his fight with Floyd, Chavez was actually giving the pound for pound king some competition and gave a better account of himself against Floyd than Deigo Corrales or Arturo Gatti.

He had Erik Morales in serious trouble in the first round of their bout as he caught “El Terrible” sleeping. If not for Morales’ chin and ability to weather the storm, Chavez would have put Erik away. Chavez  was able to take the best Erik had to offer and finished the fight with a bad rotator cuff injury that was sustained somewhere in the middle rounds of heated action. To make it clearer, Chavez fought close to half of the fight with one arm and still managed to remain competitive.

The advantage for Barrera could be whether or not Chavez has mentally recovered from his tragic bout with Leavander Johnson. Most fighters who were participants in a bout where their opponent died as a result of injuries sustained in the fight, are never the same mentally.  Some take many years to recover. If Chavez gets Barrera in serious trouble, will he be mentally ready to pull the trigger in order to finish him off.

There is a bigger size disparity in the Barrera-Chavez bout than the Raheem-Morales bout. If Marco is not strong enough to keep Chavez at bay and there is a very good chance that he is not, the fight could spell serious trouble for Barrera, but not one that would damage his ability for future money making opportunities. If Marco is not stripped of his titles for making the move to 135 pounds and I don’t think he will be, at least of the WBC strap, he could fall back to 130 and still make some serious dollars.

Remember, the WBC ruled a few short weeks ago that Barrera must face the winner of the upcoming rematch between Morales and Pacquiao. No matter who wins the fight, Barrera is in line for a major pay-per-view payday. It would be better for Marco’s career for Pacquiao to win the fight in order to line up a very anticipated rematch. Although a 4th bout with Morales would generate a lot of interest, why would he want to give Erik the chance to tie up their series?

After stating on several occasions to various media outlets that he would not make a move to 135 pounds, the decision to face Chavez in a very dangerous fight comes as a surprise to many. Is it a smart career choice? Depends on how you look at the situation.

If he captures a 4th world title in a 4th weight class, he would accomplish something that even the great Julio Cesar Chavez was unable to complete in 116 bouts. Marco would place himself well ahead of Morales on the list of great fighters from Mexico and could start gaining recognition as one of the greatest Mexican fighters to ever lace up the gloves.

If he loses, especially by knockout, it could affect his negotiating power for a lion’s share of the purse in future bouts and damage his overall career.

Say what you will about Morales, he may have lost to Marco twice, but he has yet to be stopped, and he was never even legitimately knocked down. Morales has been involved in more wars than Barrera and beat just as many world class opponents, maybe even more.

If Barrera wins, he clearly stands out among other world class Mexican fighters. If he loses, he falls several steps back and would have to fall back behind Morales. A loss for Marco would mean that Morales would hold wins over every single fighter that beat him and knowing Morales, he would make sure that Marco and the rest of the boxing world is well aware of that fact.