Barrios out against Morales

According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, This Saturday’s Lightweight bout between former world champions Erik Morales and Jorge Barrios will need a change of opponents due to Barrios not being able to travel outside of Argentina due to a previous legal problem.

In January, Barrios was involved in a car accident in which a pregnant woman was killed, which led to a lengthy court case. Barrios was eventually exonerated and resumed his career after an 11-month layoff in October.

According to Golden Boy Promotions matchmaker Eric Gomez, “about a month ago he got the green light to travel” for the Morales fight. “The judge approved Barrios to travel and everything was fine,” Gomez said. “He was supposed to pick up the special travel permit on Monday and then travel on Tuesday.”

However, Gomez said he was told by Mario Arano, the promoter from Argentina who is Golden Boy’s partner on Barrios, that the family of the woman who had been killed had gone to court seeking to reopen the case and wanted to stop him from leaving the country.

Gomez said that Arano told him that during a hearing on Monday, the judge told Barrios she would need some time to review the case. The judge was a different judge than one originally assigned to the case because that judge was on vacation, Gomez said.

“The judge made a remark and said she needed some time and I guess the attorney [for Barrios] snapped at her that the decision had already been made by the other judge,” Gomez said. “She got upset and said, ‘It’s my decision now.’

“After a recess, [the judge] said it was not a good idea for Barrios to travel and she denied it. Barrios is appealing, but there’s no time. The original judge was on early holiday and gone for the rest of the month,” Gomez said.

Gomez said the two leading possibilities are former world title challenger Francisco Lorenzo (35-8, 16 KOs) of the Dominican Republic and David Rodela (15-3-3, 6 KOs) of Oxnard, Calif., who is promoted by Golden Boy.

“Rodela has accepted the fight and we’re waiting to see about Lorenzo. He has a similar style to Barrios,” Gomez said. “Erik said he would talk to his dad about it and look at some film.”