24 years ago: Marco Antonio Barrera "The BabyFaced Assassin" Tapia vs. José Luis "El Zurdo" Valbuena

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Valbuena, despite already being in his late twenties, came in with threadbare mileage at just 15-1-1-1. MAB already had more title defenses alone (sixteen) than his Venezuelan southpaw opponent had victories, period.

Both men had taken major psychological hits in bouts with countrymen within the previous year. Barrera had suffered a bitterly close defeat to eventual 3-time rival and fellow Mexican all time great Érik Morales seven months earlier. Valbuena had inflicted fatal injuries on fellow Venezuelan lefty Carlos Augusto Barreto in a TKO10 victory over him eleven months before he stepped up and fought Barrera.

So with reasons for being mentally compromised being a push - and with The Baby Faced Assassin the much bigger star with loads more power and experience - you'd expect this would have been a routine outclassing. Hardly so.

The unknown Valbuena boxed incredibly well, and entering the championship rounds was up on the late Harold Lederman's card. Barrera's corner felt the urgency as well, goading their man on to a strong finish in the last three frames applying intelligent pressure behind a stiff jab up to and wrecking ball rights on the body.

Lederman wound up with a 115-113 scorecard, matched by one judge. That seems about right; you could even go as far as having it a draw (but probably not a victory for Valbuena). The other two cards for Barrera were probably a tad wide.

JLV would trudge on another half-decade. At the ripe old age (for a super bantam) of 34 he gave a prime Celestino "Pelenchín" Caballero Martínez some difficulty in the Panamanian's first IBF championship defense before succumbing via TKO5. His career high point remains how close he ran MAB during the great's second act, shortly before cementing his legacy with the humbling of Prince Naz.

You'll find almost no bigger fans of Barrera than me - but not sure there's much to conspiracy theories about him "looking bad on purpose" against Valbuena to bait Hamed in. Think he just ran into a game and determined southpaw with a decent ring IQ and gas tank, and was legitimately befuddled for a stretch.