Amir Khan stops Marco Antonio Barrera in five

The rehabilitation of Amir Khan continued last night with what was, on paper and ultimately in reality, the most impressive victory of his career to date. The 22-year-old former Olympic silver medallist was a long way ahead on the cards of all three judges when his fight against the former three-time world champion Marco Antonio Barrera had to be stopped shortly before the end of round five.
The veteran Mexican had been badly cut in an accidental clash of heads at the end of the first round and the blood flowed so profusely thereafter that it was disquieting the fight was not stopped at least a round earlier.
Even so, Khan had already shown more than enough to make clear he has learnt from the months he has spent with new trainer Freddy Roach.
His right hand was high, guarding his suspect chin against the left hook with which three opponents — Breidis Prescott and before him Michael Gomez and Willie Limond — have dropped him. Roach has also had Khan working on specific punches, including a counter left hook, and that punch rattled Barrera several times. He has also introduced exercises intended to strengthen the legs of his young charge. Khan looked strong and, more importantly, balanced throughout.
Whether, as promoter Frank Warren believes, he has now put himself in line for a world title shot depends on what one makes of the challenge offered by Barrera. He was unquestionably a great fighter but the suspicion that he was not only past his peak — at 35, that much had to be taken for granted — but was so far past it that his presence amounted to little more than being delivered up to give credence to the relaunch of Khan’s career had been hardening in the days leading up to the fight.
Although the list of the Mexican’s former world titles is a long one, his last successful defence, of the WBC super-featherweight championship, was in October 2006. His insistence beforehand that he was determined to become the first Mexican-born fighter to win world championships in four different weight divisions was unconvincing, the more so because he is now being promoted by Don King. Even so, Barrera had been stopped only once before in his 19-year career, and he was cheered to the ring by the Manchester crowd.
Khan by contrast received what might kindly be described as a mixed reception. The memory of Prescott reducing Khan’s legs to jelly in the first round of the Briton’s defence of his WBO intercontinental lightweight championship last September clearly remain uncomfortably fresh but once again, Khan proved that offensively, he has the power and ability to hurt good fighters. His jab, always strong and fast, thumped into Barrera’s face, and his combination work was intelligent, as was his movement. If Barrera wasn’t the fighter he was, however, he looked as durable as ever, so it was doubly unfortunate that a clash of heads should cut him so deeply, close to the hairline over his left eye. By the end of the second round the left side of his face was a mask of blood and it was hard to believe he was seeing the swinging short right hands that Khan thumped in.
A minute into the fourth round, referee Terry O’Connor called the doctor to inspect the wound. Barrera was fighting gamely but constantly blinking and wiping blood away from his eye with his glove.
Remarkably, he was given the go-ahead to continue. By now Khan was doing almost as his pleased. The end came when O’Connor finally ruled Barrera unable to go on.
Enzo Maccarinelli, well beaten by David Haye in his attempt to unify the WBO, WBC and WBA cruiserweight titles this time last year, was hoping to defeat Ola Afolabi and set himself on the way to a rematch. Unfortunately for Maccarinelli, Afolabi, born in London but now living in California, proved a tough as well as entertainingly stylish opponent and the fight was stopped after he floored the Welshman with a clean right in the ninth.
Earlier, Nicky Cook failed to defend his WBO super-featherweight world championship against the unbeaten Puerto Rican Roman Martinez. Cook was an unexpected winner of the title when he beat the fancied Alex Arthur on points in this ring last September.
A left hook dropped him in the fourth last night and, though he just beat the count, a second knockdown moments later left the referee little option but to stop the fight.
Source:the times