Barrios Impresses on Showtime

On Thursday, two fighters promised a war. When Saturday was over, they delivered, even though the war was short.

Mario Barrios put his undefeated record on the line against Richard Zamora, a fighter born in Mexico making his U.S. debut.

Barrios, known as "El Azteca" had the height advantage, like he usually does in his weight class. That didn't seem to bother Zamora, who didn't retreat while taking punch after brutal punch from the fighter who graduated from Southwest High School.

Through the first three rounds, Barrios controlled the fight but Zamora was landing a few punches of his own, even if they were few and far between.

That all changed when this super lightweight bout entered the fourth round.

Barrios unleashed a series of power punches that got Zamora to start backing up from the attack. However, Zamora did his best to stay with Barrios and counter attack, letting a number of punches land. Every attack seemed to have a counter attack.

“I wasn't surprised," said Barrios to KSAT 12 Sports on Sunday afternoon. "He said himself he wanted a war. I knew he would be game.”

That wouldn't last long.

Things started to fall apart for Zamora with a minute left in the fourth. He started to flat out miss making contact with Barrios. He was having trouble keeping his balance. The punches he did land were not keeping Barrios from continuing his attack.

That's when the ref jumped in to stop the fight with 42 seconds left in the round. Even though it looked like Zamora was just taking the punches at that point, the crowd and commentators on Showtime thought the stoppage was premature. Even the fans in attendance shared their disappointment that the fight was stopped.

“I felt the ref's call was necessary," said Barrios. "Zamora took some heavy shots and was countering but ineffectively. If the fight had continued, he could've got seriously hurt."

Barrios landed 59 percent of his power punches, which is impressive for any fight. He also landed more of those than Zamora actually threw. Overall, Barrios landed almost four times as many punches than Zamora.

Barrios improves to 23-0 with 15 knockouts and a knockout streak now at seven.

Now back in San Antonio, he patiently waits for a chance to fight for a world title.

“I’m ready for that next step," Barrios told Showtime's Jim Gray on national television after the fight. "But in the end of the day that is up to my managerial team. Whenever they feel I'm ready, I'm going to be right there for one of those world titles.”

Twitter/Instagram: @Boxer_Barrios

Photos courtesy of Dave Mandel/Showtime

Daniel P. Villanueva has worked with KSAT 12 Sports for over 15 years and is an award-winning sports producer. To submit story ideas, email sports@ksat.com