By Tim Smith

LAS VEGAS – Marco Antonio Barrera did not put out a maximum effort in his first fight against Rocky Juarez, and he came away with a disputed decision. He felt bad and wanted another shot to prove that he was much better and that Juarez had no right to believe he was in Barrera’s league.

Barrera didn’t expend much more effort in the rematch at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Saturday night. But this time he was more pleased with his 12-round unanimous decision, even though many in the crowd of 10,421 did not share his sentiment. As Barrera was on his way to retaining his World Boxing Council super featherweight title, boos rained down from the crowd at moments during the fight and some people even called Barrera a dog.

“People came and paid their money and they came for entertainment,’’ Barrera said of the boo birds. “They can say what they want. But this is a sport where you are supposed to hit and not get hit.’’

Barrera (63-4, 42 KOs) had that down to a science as he outclassed and confounded Juarez, who didn’t appear to learn anything from the first match.

“Coming off the first fight we did our homework, but apparently we didn’t do enough road work,’’ said Carl Moretti of Main Events, Juarez’ promoter, indicating that they didn’t expect Barrera to run so much.

Barrera made no apologies for his strategy of staying away from Juarez.

“Obviously most of my people are used to seeing me in explosive fights,’’ Barrera said.

 “I wanted to box. I want to teach him a lesson. I wanted to beat him with my left hand.’’

Juarez (25-3, 18 KOs) expressed disappointment that he couldn’t deliver the WBC super featherweight title to his 95-year-old grandfather, Pedro Juarez, Sr., who was sitting ringside, as he had promised.

“We came with a good plan. He came with a good game plan,’’ Juarez said. “He smothered all my punches. We tried to make it a fight. But he didn’t want to fight.’’

Juarez said he doesn’t know what Barrera was talking about when he said he taught Juarez a lesson.

“He said he gave me a boxing lesson,’’ Juarez said. “He gave me this eye (the right one swollen shut) with a good uppercut. But I didn’t see how he gave me a boxing lesson. I came to fight. He didn’t.’’

Apparently, Barrera learned his lesson from the first fight. He discovered that it wasn’t too smart to brawl with Juarez. And this time he didn’t even try. That is what makes Barrera a master at the game. He won’t put himself in harms way to please the crowd. He does what it takes to win and on Saturday night it didn’t take much.

“I operated at 30-40% capacity because that’s all that was required of me,’’ Barrera said.

Judge Hubert Minn scored it 117-111, while judges Chuck Giampa and Dave Moretti scored it 115-113 – all for Barrera. Had Giampa and Moretti scored the 12th round for Juarez, the fight would have been a majority draw. The first match between the two men at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on May 20th was originally announced draw. But when the California Commission re-tabulated the scorecards they determined that Barrera had actually won a split decision.

There was no such intrigue this time. Just a matter of how wide the margin of victory would be for Barrera, who controlled the entire fight with his jab and kept Juarez so off guard that the 26-year-old Houston native could not mount a credible offense.

The 32-year-old Barrera said he was going to fight for another year and then hang up the gloves. He has had a remarkable career taking world titles at super bantamweight, featherweight and junior lightweight and is probably among the top five all-time among Mexican boxers.

Plans are already underway for his next fight.

“HBO is holding a date in March,’’ said Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, Barrera’s promoter. “If Manny Pacquiao is victorious (against Erik Morales) in November we hope to put that fight together for March.’’

Pacquiao destroyed Barrera, stopping him in the 11th round after battering him for much of the fight. Barrera is convinced that he still has enough in the tank to avenge that loss.

As for Juarez, a silver medal winner for the U.S. boxing team in the 2000 Olympic Games, it is back to the drawing board. He said he could fight at either featherweight or junior lightweight and would accept title challenges in both divisions.

“I’ll be back,’’ Juarez said. “I’m definitely going to become a world champion sooner or later.’