Marco Antonio Barrera has vowed to hand Mexican countryman Erik Morales his first professional ring defeat.

The pair had an ugly press conference punch up which flared when Morales accused his adversary of being gay through the media.

At a press conference in Houston Barrera invited Morales to repeat the jibe and when he obliged, Barrera slammed a straight right into his face.

This triggered a brief but nasty brawl and now Barrera has vowed to train 10 times harder for their 2 March Las Vegas fight.

He stressed: "This insult was way below the belt, untrue and unjust.

"I think he's an excellent boxer and a marvellous champion. But as a person he's insular, he doesn't think, talks for talking sake, and he's annoyed me greatly by behaving in this ridiculous way.

"Make no mistake I'm going to defeat him, be it by a points win or a knockout in this next fight."

A residue of bitterness exists between Morales and Barrera following their first fight last year, which was at the lower super bantamweight limit.

All three judges controversially saw the former winning on points - a verdict the latter has always refused to accept.

Barrera recalls: "He threw a lot of punches, virtually all of which I took on the gloves.

"I threw some good combinations, my punches landed well and he ended badly marked up.

"He's now motivated me to train even harder,�devoting more time to the gym and I'll be translating this into punches in the ring.

"Technically every boxer has certain faults. I can sometimes lower my guard and when that happens I receive a lot of punches.

Satisfying

"With him, when he's attacked he doesn't know what to do, and he's on the ropes with his hands held high."

Barrera says that after he has defeated Morales, he would like to fight Naseem again, and he would even go to Sheffield to do this if the money was right.

He commented: "It wouldn't matter if the ring was in Naseem's back garden or on his patio, because it's only us in that ring.

"To win in his back yard would be even more satisfying for me. I think Naseem is waiting for the result of my fight with Erik Morales to know who to fight."

Barrera also confirmed that he and his team have decided that he will finally hang up his gloves at the age of 31, unless his body interjects and tells him to pre-date this milestone.

Neither Marco Antonio Barrera or Erik Morales is prepared to back down concerning this out of the ring feud.

But on 2 March in Las Vegas, something will surely have to give.