On Saturday night, two of the best little men in boxing, Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales, will step into the ring at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas to face each other for the third time.

The 30-year-old Barrera (58-4, 41 KOs) began fighting in Mexico at age 15 and was undefeated until suffering back-to-back losses against Junior Jones eight years ago. Then he regrouped and, on April 7, 2001, handed Naseem Hamed the only defeat of his career.

Morales (47-1, 34 KOs ), like Barrera, has held titles at 122 and 126 pounds. He now wears the World Boxing Council’s 130-pound crown.

The two men met in the ring for the first time on February 19, 2000, in a slugfest that was regarded by many as the fight of the year. Most observers thought that Barrera had the edge, but Morales won a 115-112, 114-113, 113-114 split decision. On June 22, 2002, they went at it again. This time, it was a more tactical fight and the general view was that Morales got the better of it. But Barrera escaped with a 116-112, 115-113, 115-113 triumph.

Morales has reeled off six straight wins since then, while Barrera has three victories to his credit. The feeling in boxing circles is that Barrera, who suffered an 11-round demolition at the hands of Manny Pacquiao last November, might have slipped a bit. That plus the fact that he is two years older than his opponent, should be enough to give Morales the edge in their rubber match.

The fight will be televised by HBO Pay-Per-View.

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Winky Wright successfully defended his WBC and WBA 154-pound titles last Saturday night with a majority decision over Shane Mosley. Wright, a southpaw, controlled the fight with his jab and landed 273 punches to 154 by Mosley.

There was one bizarre moment in Round 5, when Wright dropped his hands and dared Mosley to hit him. Shane did – hard, several times to the body followed by a good right hand to the chin that shook Winky up a bit. But as good as Mosley was at lighter weights, his power has less impact at 154 pounds. Shane’s style is to come straight forward and retreat by going straight back; when a short fighter does that against a tall one, he gets hit both coming and going.

After the fight, Wright called out Felix Trinidad, Bernard Hopkins, and Oscar De La Hoya as possible future opponents.

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An all-too-typical time-bomb appears to have been tucked away on the undercard of Wright-Mosley. Daniel Cervantes (now 3-0) is a young junior-welterweight, who is co-managed by former 154-pound champion Fernando Vargas. On Saturday night, Cervantes scored a unanimous-decision win over Juan Zuniga, who was listed on the bout sheet as having a record of 1-3. But according toboxingrec.com, Zuniga’s record prior to the fight was 1-12-1.

Marc Ratner, executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, says the commission relied on Fight Fax (the official registry for the Association of Boxing Commissions) in approving the bout. Fight Fax provided yet another variable, listing Zuniga’s record as 2-4.

It’s possible that boxingrec.com combined the record of the Juan Zuniga who fought on Saturday night with another Juan Zuniga who fought in the 1990s. Regardless, it all adds up to one more reason why boxing needs a federal commission to centralize authority and record-keeping in the sport.