BOXING Barrera favored to beat Tapia

The featherweights collide Saturday in a non-title fight on HBO in Las Vegas.
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Marco Antonio Barrera is generally regarded as the best featherweight in the world. Johnny Tapia owned a featherweight title when he agreed to fight Barrera.
When the two get into the ring Saturday night, though, there won't be a title belt in sight. And that's fine with both 126-pound fighters.
"I make more money without the title than I did with the title," Tapia said.
Tapia was stripped of his title by the IBF for agreeing to fight Barrera, who refused the WBC title when he beat WBC champion Erik Morales earlier this year.
Saturday's fight (10 p.m., HBO) will be a 12-round bout anyway, and the lack of a plastic belt doesn't seem to make much difference.
"The people are more interested in a fighter's heart and the actual fight. The belt is not important," Barrera said. "If it's a good fight it doesn't matter."
Coming off win
Barrera (55-3, 39 knockouts) is coming off a June 22 decision over Morales that avenged his decision loss to his fellow Mexican featherweight two years earlier. But it was his win over Naseem Hamed in April 2001 that cemented his claim to being the best in the division.
"I beat a great fighter with a huge name who was very famous," Barrera said. "I also learned that I knew how to box in that fight."
That may sound odd coming from a fighter who has been in so many bouts, but Barrera believes he is learning late in his career that he doesn't need to be a nonstop aggressor to win fights.
That showed against Morales in their last fight, when Barrera was content to counterpunch early and didn't throw nearly the volume of punches he did in the first fight.
"I'm a lot more mature now," said the 28-year-old Barrera, who comes from a well-to-do family in Mexico City. "I use my head more and try to box more."
Tapia doesn't buy it a bit.
"His past is catching up to him. Now he wants to be smarter and last longer in the game," Tapia said. "You can't teach an old dog new tricks."
Barrera is a 4-1 favorite over Tapia, who has survived drug problems, gunshot wounds, a suicide attempt and severe depression to still fight at the age of 35.
Tapia (52-2-2, 28 knockouts) won the IBF featherweight title April 27 with a disputed decision over Manuel Medina, but there are signs that his frenzied style in the ring and turbulent life outside of it are catching up on him too.