BOXING: BARRERA HAS GOOD COUNTER BALANCE AYALA FLOORED 3 TIMES IN BATTLE OF EX-CHAMPS.

Byline: Keven Chavez Staff Writer

CARSON - Marco Antonio Barrera needed to make a statement to reaffirm his place among the world's best featherweights.

Barrera's statement came through as loud and clear as his enthusiastic fans in the crowd of 5,732 at the tennis stadium at Home Depot Center on Saturday night.

Barrera knocked down veteran Paulie Ayala three times during a dominant tactical performance to win the non-title bout between former champions.

The former world junior featherweight champion sent Ayala to the canvas twice in the seventh round. Then in the 10th round, Barrera delivered a four-punch combination that sent Ayala down and forced referee Pat Russell to stop the fight at 2:34 of the round. It was scheduled to go 12 rounds.

Barrera (58-4, 41 knockouts) maintained his distance throughout the early rounds and scored with solid counter-punching as Ayala (35-3 12 KOs) came forward. Barrera continually landed strong left jabs and worked effectively to Ayala's midsection while slipping punches from the southpaw.

It was the sort of calculating performance one might expect from the 30-year-old Barrera, who seven months ago lost by a convincing 11th-round knockout to Manny Pacquiao.

``(Ayala) was very brave, he showed a lot of courage,'' Barrera said. ``He was very game. Even thought I knocked him down twice I thought he had a lot left I didn't want to risk anything.''

Barrera took control in the seventh round with several more hard body punches to Ayala, which forced the former world bantamweight champion to bend over and grimace in pain. A left hook to the ribs sent Ayala down to one knee, then a minute later, a double left hook to the body put Ayala back on the canvas.

Barrera delivered another hard shot to the body during the finishing combination in the 10th.

``He's a good counter-puncher,'' Ayala said. ``The last knockdown he caught me very hard to ribs, I couldn't breathe. I lost my breathing, took a knee and that was it.''

The victory puts Barrera strongly back into the world championship contention, and he and his promoter suggested Barrera might seek either a rematch against Pacquiao or a third fight against Erik Morales, against whom Barrera split two crowd-pleasing and controversial decisions.

Ayala, 34, who this week described this bout as a ``crossroads fight'' stopped just short of announcing his retirement after the loss, but hinted strongly that he would not return to the ring.

``I'm going to talk to my wife and I'm going to pray,'' Ayala said. ``I don't want to wind up a punching bag.''

On the undercard, undefeated middleweight Jermain Taylor (21-0 16 KOs) retained his WBC Continental Americas championship with a ninth-round knockout over former world champion Raul Marquez (35-3 24 KOs).

Marquez's cornermen stopped the fight before the beginning of the 10th round. The 32-year-old Marquez said after the bout that he will retire.

Keven Chavez, [phone]

keven.chavez(at)sgvn.com