My Most Memorable Fights on HBO: (1996) Marco Antonio Barrera TKO 12 Kennedy McKinney
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By Rich “Lite It Up” Lopez
As we said goodbye to HBO boxing after a 45 year run, I would like to look back at some of my most memorable fights on the premium channel. Sure there have been many great fights on HBO such as: Leonard/Hearns I, Pryor/Arguello I, Hagler/Hearns, Chavez/Taylor I, and Bowe/Holyfield I, etc. In this case, I’m going to start with fights I personally saw live on TV. I started to get into boxing at the end of 1995 and the beginning of 1996. I’m going to go through the years and pick the one fight that stood out for me that year on HBO.
Marco Antonio Barrera TKO12 Kennedy McKinney, 2-3-1996, Inglewood, California: This was the debut of HBO’s Boxing after Dark series and what a debut it was. I had already started to become a fan of the Baby Faced Assassin Marco Antonio Barrera in 1995. He won the WBO World Super Bantamweight title that year and made an impressive 4 title defenses. He got his spotlight on the 1st BAD card and was taking on former world champion Kennedy “King” McKinney. The undefeated Barrera was 22 years old at that time and was being compared to Julio Cesar Chavez at the time, but we weren’t for sure how good he was. Honestly, I have never seen McKinney fight before, but I knew it would be Barrera’s toughest challenge. The 30 year old McKinney had the more experience of the two fighters. Just seeing the footage of the press conference where McKinney was talking trash to Barrera and Barrera responded by throwing a right hand at McKinney, I knew it was going to be a good fight.
Barrera came out with a fury in the 1st round landing a right hand that stunned McKinney, but McKinney held his ground. Barrera did some more good work in the 2nd round with body punches and outworked McKinney. McKinney came back in rounds three, four, and five using his jab and landing his trademark right hand on Barrera. Barrera seemed confused and frustrated as he did not get rid of McKinney right away. The fight opened up more in round six, and both fighters went toe to toe. Barrera was connecting with hook shots to the body and head, while McKinney was continuing to land his right hands. As the round came to a finish, both fighters traded shots in the middle of the ring. According to the punch stats, Barrera threw 113 punches in the round. In round seven, both fighters picked up where they left off with furious exchanges. Fatigue was setting in on Barrera and McKinney looked the fresher of the two fighters.
McKinney closed the round well and backed up Barrera for the most part. The fight was close but I had a slight edge for McKinney after seven rounds. In the 8th round, McKinney was having another good round until the last minute of the round. Barrera came back with a straight right to the head, followed by a left hook to the body and then another right to the head to drop McKinney. McKinney showed great heart and got up. Barrera went right at McKinney and trapped him against the corner of the ropes throwing a flurry of punches. McKinney got out of the corner but then was dropped by another right hand by Barrera. McKinney managed to survive and made it out of the round. McKinney did a great job of recovering in the 9th round while Barrera was showing patience. Barrera trapped McKinney in the corner and landed a barrage of punches. McKinney went down again to avoid further damage. McKinney got up again and survived the round once again.
As we got into round 10, McKinney was not done yet. Barrera seemed to be looking for a second wind and was hurt by a right hand from McKinney. McKinney was teeing off on Barrera on the ropes and towards the end of the round McKinney’s mouthpiece came out. During some good exchanges between both fighters, referee Pat Russell decided to break the fighters up to have McKinney’s mouthpiece put back in. It seemed to be a mistake as McKinney was getting the better of the exchanges. In the 11th round, McKinney landed a right hand in which Barrera’s right glove touched the canvas and it was counted as a knockdown.
There was a wet spot in the middle of ring which caused Barrera to slip. As the round ended, McKinney raised his hands up in confidence but this would be the last hurrah from McKinney. In the final 12th round, Barrera landed a flurry of body punches which dropped McKinney, however it was the wet spot in the middle of the ring that made McKinney off balanced. The ref called it a knockdown regardless. Both fighters exchanged again and Barrera landed a left hook to the liver of McKinney. McKinney went down from the punch, but the ref mistakenly did not rule it a knockdown. As McKinney got up again, Barrera went for the finish and dropped McKinney again with a hard right hand. This time the ref saw enough and called the fight off. The official time was 2:05 of the 12th round. It was the end to a great fight with a total of 6 knockdowns.
At the end of the fight, there was no more bad blood.
Both fighters buried the hatchet and gave each other respect in the post-fight interview with Larry Merchant. Barrera and McKinney never re-matched after this. At 30 years old, it might have been the end of McKinney’s career, but he managed to win a world title again the following year by upsetting Junior Jones by stoppage. As for Barrera, this was a learning lesson for him. Barrera would become one of the greatest Mexican fighters of all time. Later he would also participate in more memorable battles on HBO.
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