San Antonio’s Barrios overcomes swollen eye, off night
Mario Barrios provided flashes of the world champion fighter he has become, landing his best punch, the left jab, and punishing rights.
In the third round, one such combination from the San Antonio welterweight dropped Fabian Maidana. But that's the problem. It was only one combination.
Clearly the better fighter, Barrios took control from there. He overcame a badly swollen right eye and won a one-sided decision in the co-main event on the Canelo Alvarezjaime Munguia card Saturday night at T-mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
But Barrios (29-2, 18 knockouts) struggled most of the night against an inferior foe and looked nothing like the fighter who destroyed former world champion Yordenis Ugas of Cuba in the same arena in September.
“I knew he was coming in here for 12 hard rounds,” Barrios said. “My hat's off to Maidana. He's a warrior. These are the fights that are the hardest, that you don't see coming.
“I'm not too happy with my performance, but I thank everyone for being here. I appreciate the support.”
Barrios was able to do
enough to successfully defend his WBC interim 147-pound crown, but he was off form most of the night.
It didn't help that Maidana (22-3, 16 KOS) fought only in spurts and appeared more interested in surviving than winning.
This was odd, because the fight represented the biggest opportunity of Maidana's career. The younger brother of former world champion Marcos Maidana, an Argentine legend, Fabian Maidana, 31, threw only 323 punches the entire 12-round fight (landing just 84). He threw only 18 punches in
round 10, landing three.
By contrast, Barrios threw 446 punches, landing 139. He connected on more punches than Maidana in 11 of the 12 rounds and won all three judges' scorecards, 116-111, or eight rounds to four.
When Maidana did connect with a punch, it was effective. Most of them seemed to land on Barrios' right eye, and by the sixth round, that eye was swelling and closing fast. By fight's end, it was completely shut.
“I started feeling (the swelling) right away,” Barrios said. “It made it hard to find my range, get
my rhythm down. It definitely was a factor.”
But Maidana simply chose not to fight. Barrios did not deliver his usual volume of punches, either, which made for a boring 12 rounds.
His knockdown of Maidana was the highlight of the night for Barrios. It was the first time Maidana, who had fought mostly B-level competition, had been down in 25 pro bouts.
But Barrios didn't follow up by applying pressure and let Maidana off the hook. He hurt Maidana on other occasions, but could not close the show.
Maidana blamed his performance on preparation.
“I felt like this loss happened because of a lack of training time,” he said. “No excuses, though. I'm going to come back stronger and bring a world championship back to Argentina.”
For Barrios, who turns 29 in two weeks, it was not the way he wanted to charge into fatherhood.
His partner, Omayra Figueroa, is scheduled to give birth to the couple's first child in August. Omayra's brother, Brandon
Figueroa, knocked out Jessie Magdaleno in the ninth round in an earlier undercard bout.
Barrios said he is ready to turn the page on his boxing career and set his sights on a wide-open welterweight division.
There is already talk his next fight could come against WBA welterweight champion Eimantas Stanionis (15-0, 9 KOS) of Lithuania, who defeated Gabriel Maestre (6-1-1, 5 KOS) of Colombia by unanimous decision Saturday night at T-mobile in an undercard bout.