Usmanee stops Barrera

By Doug Rowe, FightNews Canada
Photo: John Rowe

Arash Usmanee made his homecoming a successful one as the undefeated Canadian super featherweight prospect stopped Mexico’s Alejandro Barrera in the 5th round Saturday night at the Capri Centre in Red Deer, Alberta. Trainer Daniel Trepanier’s game plan for Usmanee was to move forward against the very aggressive Barrera. The planned worked to perfection as the Canadian systematically broke down the Mexican fighter enroute to a KO victory. The fight, however, was by no means easy as Barrera, for the better part of five rounds, tried to answer everything Usmanee threw at him.

“He was tough man,” said Usmanee. 13-0, 7 KO’s “He has the warrior mentality. Every time I hurt him he would come at me, and I knew I hurt him, I just wanted to catch him with another hard shot.”

The super-featherweight bout had non-stop action from the beginning to the end and had the crowd of 1800 at the Capri Centre in Red Deer, Alberta, standing on their feet, roaring their support.

The first round opened with Usmanee landing over hand rights and jabs to easily take the round 10-9. In the second round the action heated up even more, as Usmanee landed a five-punch combo, and controlled the action with his 1-2’s. With seconds left in the round the Red Deer boxer landed a monster right hand, but Barrera, 21-7, 14 KO’s, came right back with his own combination prompting the North American Boxing Association champion to pat his opponent on the head in appreciation at the end of the round.

In the third round Usmanee, 29, hurt Barrera twice and each time the Mexican would come back stronger. The NABA champion upped his bodywork and two minutes into the round hurt the veteran with a right to the body, but again Barrera came back firing, landing an over hand right of his own.

The fourth round was much the same with Usmanee controlling the action with his energy level and volume of punches, but he could not break Barrera, as the Mexican answered with his own right hands and combinations.

In the fifth round Usmanee took it to another level throwing combination after combination in rapid-fire succession. He bloodied Barrera’s nose, hurting his opponent with the jab, and then with very little time left in the round, Usmanee cornered Barrera landing a jab, straight right and left hook to the body that obviously hurt the Mexican. Barrera spun his way out of the corner and retreated to the opposite corner but Usmanee pursued landing a straight right to drop the Mexican. Barrera went to a knee but was counted out at 2:59 of the round.

“I knew this was the kind of guy that if you show a little weakness, he is going to eat you up, but if you show some grit, he just took a knee and that is it,” said Usmanee “I had him hurt throughout the fight. I was just biding my time. If I wasn’t going to hurt him now, drop him, I knew it was going to eventually affect him in the later rounds. My goal was the fifth round knockout.”

The bout was by far the best of Usmanee’s young professional career as for the most part he controlled the bout with speed, flowing combinations and action.

Trepanier was very pleased with his pupil’s performance.

“This is one of his best performances,” said Trepanier. “We have been working on the speed and combinations and it is paying off. Arash is ready for the next level now.”

Barrera, who has fought some of the best featherweights and super featherweights in the world was very complementary of Usmanee.

“You could tell he is tough and he showed that today and I can only see him moving up in the ranks,” explained Barrera, 31, through an interpreter. “Arash, he just goes for it.”

The veteran’s plan for the bout was to take the less experienced fighter deep into the bout by pressing the action, but the strategy backfired on him.

“He kind of thought I was going to get tired but he didn’t know that I have three more gears,” explained the former five-time Canadian Amateur champion. “After the fourth round I moved to the next gear.”

TSN boxing commentator and Usmanee’s cornerman Russ Anber agreed with the fighter’s analysis.

“Obviously he doesn’t know Arash because by doing that you are playing into his strong suit,” explained Anber. “I think that is one of the things that separates Arash from the rest of the guys. . . Every time the guy tried to change gears and take Arash to another level Arash was able to follow and eventually he broke his (Barrera’s) will . . .If someone wants to test him on that they are going to come out second every time.”

For Usmanee fighting in his hometown will be an experience he will never forget.

“This was the best time of my boxing career so far. I want to thank Red Deer for having me, the Red Deer Boxing Club, my family, fans, everybody here who came to support me, and All in Promotions.”

After his victory Usmanee was body-surfed (rock star style) out of the ring by his fans.

Undercard results

Ibrahim Kamal, 2-0, 2 KO’s showed why he is one of the most excited professional prospects in Canada as he dropped Mexican Carlos Martinez, 5-11, 3 KO’s, three times, twice in the first round and then again in the third round to finish his opponent.

“In the first round I tried to take him out but he is a veteran this is his 16th pro fight so he went down twice but he knew his way around the ring not to take further punishment,” explained the former Canadian Amateur champion “In the second round I tried to go more head hunting. My corner asked me to work the body, left uppercut, and in the third round it came through. I stepped outside caught him to the body, right in the liver and that is a deadly punch for a southpaw.”

Other professional bouts saw, Edmonton welterweight Rory Coveney, 6-0, 3 KO’s put in a workman-like performance stopping his Calgary opponent Todd Furler 0-5-1 at the end of round four. In rounds three and four, Coveney threw and landed every possible punch a southpaw has in his arsenal forcing Furler’s corner to throw in the towel at the end of the fourth frame. Edmonton lightweight Amy Johnson improved to 7-2-3 by employing a superior jab over Peggy Maerz, of B.C., 0-2-1, for a split-decision victory in the lightweight division, and Red Deer Heavyweight Jared Kilkenny, 3-0-2 2 KO’s fought to a draw against, Quebec’s Taffo Asongwed, 0-7-7, their second draw in as many fights

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May 16th, 2011

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