Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales are getting it on this Saturday night in Las Vegas. Their first tussle was perhaps the best action fight between championship-level fighters in over a decade. The rematch promises to be another epic, and this time the winner will be crowned the one and only true featherweight champion of the world. He will have the Ring Magazine belt to prove it.

Lennox Lewis defended his Ring belt against Mike Tyson two Saturdays ago. The vast majority of boxing writers and broadcasters polled picked Lewis to win the fight by knockout. The fight turned out to be one sided, with the oft-predicted outcome taking place in the eighth round. It was not a fight-of-the-year type of affair. Certainly not a boring scrap, but no Barrera-Morales.

Yet because Mexican featherweights are not as popular with the mainstream American press as English-speaking heavyweights, most sports fans will not even know to tune in on Saturday to watch what will surely be another war. And it's a shame, because Barrera and Morales will put on the kind of show that will make a lifelong boxing fan of anyone who sees it.

Morales, who was made out by some to be invincible at 122 pounds, has struggled a bit at times against strong 126-pound competition. Still, he remains one of boxing's elite, and although his points win against Barrera was hotly disputed, everyone agrees that the fight was close.

Barrera, for his part, has looked better than ever since the Morales fight, which took place early in 2000. Once a child prodigy (he has been wowing boxing people at a professional level since the age of 15), Marco Antonio has in the last two years finally fulfilled the predictions of greatness that followed him his entire career.

Where he once was an all-action fighter who paid little attention to defense, Barrera has since developed into a marvelous, well-rounded, top pound-for-pound candidate. He dominated the previously undefeated Naseem Hamed last year in a fight Barrera was expected by most to lose.

Unlike their first encounter, Barrera will likely enter the ring against Morales on Saturday as the favorite.

The undercard of Barrera-Morales is another attraction in what figures to be a big night for real boxing fans. Miguel Cotto is one of the three hot-prospect lightweights (along with Ricardo Williams and Francisco Bojado) who turned pro from the amateur class of 2000. Cotto faces his first real professional test against battle-hardened (or perhaps softened) Justin Juuko.

Juuko is best known for defeats at the hands of Floyd Mayweather and Diego Corrales, who were at the time the two best junior lightweights in the world. In both fights, however, Juuko acquitted himself well.

When Bojado faced his first real test he failed. He was undertrained and suffered a points loss. Should Cotto take Juuko for granted and lose, that will leave Ricardo Williams as the only undefeated prospect out of the three aforementioned young lightweight lions.

On the other hand, if Cotto beats Juuko -- and especially if he dominates -- then Cotto will have made the leap from prospect to contender.

Speaking of contenders, the Lewis-Tyson card showcased one of the most dynamic contenders in boxing -- Manny Pacquiao, the explosive 122-pound banger. Pacquiao blew out longtime 118-pound contender Jorge Elicier Julio. With his recent performances on televised undercards of major fights in the United States, Pacquiao has emerged as the leading contender and logical opponent for 122-pound champion Paulie Ayala.

Max Kellerman is a studio analyst for ESPN2's Friday Night Fights.