There won't be a phalanx of security guards separating Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales when they step into the ring at the MGM Grand on Saturday night, but Marc Ratner, the executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, is taking some precautions to make sure that no 'extracurricular activities' take place between the two heated Mexican rivals before they do it for real.

Several months ago, in reaction to the highly publisized melee that took place in New York between Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis and a sucker punch that Barrera took at Morales at a press conference, Ratner, stated that within his jurisdiction there would be no face-to-face standoffs between fighters and other precautions would be taken to make sure that no other altercations would break out.

"As everybody knows, the first fight was so controversial, so contentious and then we had a problem at a press conference," explained Ratner. "I'm meeting with both camps to go over different procedures. I don't believe in quite the same procedures that they had in Memphis (for Lewis-Tyson), I'm not going to take it that far. They will be at the same press conference, they will be separated, there'll be no posing.

"At the weigh-in, my plans are to have them 10 minutes apart. When Morales weighs in, he'll have somebody from Barrera's camp observing and vice-versa."

Some might say that this is an overreaction to what took place with the Lewis-Tyson promotion. But let's get this clear, the steps taken in that promotion were about protecting the corporate interests of those who chose to get themselves immersed with Tyson and nothing else. This here is about keeping the peace between two fighters who absolutely hate and despise each other 'till the first bell rings. I'd say it's a refreshing change.

"Certainly, there were some real hard feelings there and everybody does it there own way," said Ratner. "Everything worked out fine in Memphis, I will not have a line of security in the ring like they had there. I will have my inspectors in the ring, though. Which is certainly normal procedure for us. I will have them touch gloves before they fight and I'm looking forward to a magnificent 12-round fight."

There's no doubt about it, Lewis-Tyson was the spectacle of the month. Barrera-Morales is the fight of the month and Ratner and his crew are doing their best to make sure we see it on Saturday night.

JAY SHADY?

Jay Nady has been selected as the third man in the ring for Saturday nights main event, which to me seems a curious choice. I don't think Nady is a corrupt referee but rather an incredibly inconsistent one.

From his early stoppages of Derrick Gainer against Diego Corrales to his questionable one of halting Zab Judah against Kostya Tszyu to his his letting Felix Trinidad nearly behead Fernando Vargas, the guy simply makes a lot of head-scratching decisions.

"The Morales camp under no circumstance would take Joe Cortez," explained Ratner. "I have no problems getting input from the camps and especially in a rematch fight. I want everyone going in there comfortable and Cortez was presented to both sides. Barrera was fine with him, Morales under no circumstances would take him."

This isn't the first time that a rival camp has objected to Cortez as the referee for a Barrera fight. Back in 1997, when Junior Jones had his rematch with Barrera, Jones' management was very leery of Cortez's relationship with WBO president Paco Valcarcel, who is very close with Barrera's manager Ricardo Maldonado.

Like the Jones camp, I guess Morales and his crew don't think he is 'firm or fair'.

The judges for the bout are Duane Ford, Chuck Giampa and Mike Glienna.

ISSUES

The last time these two hooked-up, Barrera and Morales had a dispute over which gloves would be used. Barrera wanted to wear Cleto Reyes and Morales wanted the Japanese-made Winning. Eventually, they would wear the Reyes brand of gloves that Barrera prefers.

This time there will be no such arguments. In fact most of the issues surrounding Barrera-Morales II were ironed out months ago when the contracts were signed.

"Contractually, they came to an agreement to wear Reyes gloves," said Ratner. "Also, it's already been predetermined who will enter the ring first and who will be introduced last. So there will be no problems in that regard."

But they still hate each others guts.

A BRIGHTER BOB

While promoting his problem prizefighter Floyd Mayweather a couple of months ago, Bob Arum, had a pretty bleak outlook on the future of boxing. In becoming 'Bob Scare'm', he would call boxing, 'a dying sport' and wondered what direction the industry was heading.

Maybe he was in a bad mood because he had to deal with the drama that is 'the Pretty Boy' (which could put anybody into a dark state of mind) and the possibility of Mike Tyson running the show again. But now that he has a Mayweather-Jose Luis Castillo rematch to promote and Lennox Lewis has ended the last vestiges of 'Iron Mike', Arum seems to have a much brighter outlook on the future - starting this Saturday. In fact, he thinks that the strong reaction to Lewis-Tyson will benefit his pay-per-view broadcast on Saturday night.

"I agree, certainly I do agree," said Arum, on Monday afternoon at Freddie Roach's Wild Card Boxing Club, where his fighter, Morales, was conducting an open workout, "and the reason for that is that it (Lewis-Tyson) had a tremendous amount of people who bought that fight and the fight went off without a hitch. It was an entertaining night, even though it was a one-sided fight and I think people were entertained. Most people who watch the pay-per-view, watch it with other people and I just think a lot of them will be back to watch this fight because it's an inexpensive way to entertain."

HATRED

Barrera-Morales is truly a heated rivalry. Arum says it's among the most intense he's ever seen.

"The only one I remember was Ali and Frazier," he said. "That was really a personal rivalry and this is the closest thing I've seen since that."

ODDS

According to Lee Samuels of Top Rank, as of the middle of the week, Barrera is a 9-5 favorite over Morales.

UNDERCARD

Underneath the main event, Fernando Montiel defends his WBO 115-pound title against Pedro Alcazar and then hot prospect Miguel Cotto takes on the shopworn Justin Juuko.

Top Rank hopes to get the main event on by 8:15 p.m. local time.

REPEAT SHOWING

Sources tell me that HBO's rebroadcast of Lewis-Tyson did around an 11 rating, which is incredibly high for a repeat showing of a fight that didn't even have a live fight along with it.

I guess it shows that there are plenty of folks in this country that just couldn't wait to see Tyson get starched twice.