I don't know why there isn't more buzz about Marco Antonio Barrera's upcoming featherweight title defense against Johnny Tapia. Two of the top-10 lighter division fighters of this era meet with the real title on the line. What's not to like?

One thing I have heard going into this Saturday night's showdown is that Barrera is too good for Tapia, and so there is no real intrigue. This may prove true. Barrera, however, has become a counter-puncher of late, and I don't know how easy it is going to be for him to return to form as the seek-and-destroyer who chased Erik Morales around in their first fight. That's some intrigue right there.

Against Tapia it figures that Barrera will have to do some chasing. Johnny pressured Manuel Medina, but with Medina's freakishly long reach, everyone is forced to chase him. Tapia is at his best, though, when he stays mobile himself. To this point, Tapia's career-defining victory came against Danny Romero, a pressure fighter who tried to box with Johnny, and lost on points.

If Barrera tries to box with Tapia, will Johnny outbox him? If Barrera turns it into a slugfest, will Johnny foolishly oblige him? Neither scenario is difficult to imagine.

Tapia became a world class fighter as a 115-pound junior bantamweight, while Barrera climbed to the top as a 122-pound junior feather. I have heard this fact cited as another reason why Tapia will not compete effectively - they say he will not have the firepower to keep Barrera off him.

It is true that even as a 115-pounder Tapia was not a big banger, and he has moved up three weight divisions. But in his first significant fight as a featherweight he stopped Cesar Soto (who the mighty Naseem Hamed could not faze) in the third round.

Marco Antonio is renowned for his body attack, but he himself was badly hurt to the body against Morales in their last fight. Tapia stopped Soto with a body shot.

So who will box and who will brawl? Who should watch those body shots? The answers are: both fighters can and probably will both box and brawl. And we should all watch those body shots, because they will be flying fast and furiously.

Barrera has to be the favorite, but the fight will be more competitive than people seem to think.

Notes:

There really are not any great young heavyweights out there. Ike Ibeabuchi was the last young contender with a real chance to be something historically special. But there is another young Nigerian heavyweight on the scene who deserves mention: Sam Peter. He does not have Ibeabuchi potential, but he is a better pure puncher ... John Ruiz is presently an underrated fighter. He is not good to watch, but he is good. Should he beat Roy Jones, however, Ruiz will become an historically badly overrated fighter. History will record that the names Evander Holyfield and Roy Jones appear in Ruiz' win column. And both Holyfield and Jones, it will be noted, were still good when Ruiz fought them ... I underrated Kostya Tszyu for many years. Just wanted to let Tszyu fans know - I get it. The guy really learned from the Vince Phillips fight and became a better fighter for it ... Where to rate Ricardo Lopez historically? He never moved up and fought Mark Johnson, but he wiped out top fighters at 105 and 108 pounds. He made the elite of those two tiny divisions look much worse than they really were. And he was as picture-perfect a fighter as any I have seen.

Max Kellerman is a studio analyst for ESPN2's Friday Night Fights and the host of the new show Around The Horn.