MARCO Antonio Barrera, who won four world titles in three different weight divisions, is being lined up to fight Cassius "The Hitman" Baloyi.

MARCO Antonio Barrera, who won four world titles in three different weight divisions, is being lined up to fight Cassius "The Hitman" Baloyi.

If such a bout comes about it will present the South African world champion with his biggest pay day and it would be part of the unification process for the junior lightweight world title.

Rodney Berman, who promoted Baloyi's successful defence of his IBF junior lightweight title on Saturday night, hopes to stage a Baloyi-Barrera bout in South Africa.

Berman left Johannesburg last night for the US, where he hopes to get Barrera's signature on a contract for a fight in Ekurhuleni in February. He believes such a bout would lure a major US television network to South Africa for the tournament, which would take place in the early hours of the morning to accommodate US boxing fans.

"We did the same thing when Lennox Lewis defended his world heavyweight title against Hasim Rahman in South Africa in 2001, and it proved to be a huge success," said Berman.

If he fails to sign Barrera, Berman will try for Cuba's Yuriorkis Gamboa, who is unbeaten after 11 fights, nine of which he won by knockouts. In this scenario, the fight would probably take place in the US, where Gamboa has fought in his last five tournaments.

Berman said if the Barrera deal was clinched a 10000-seat outdoor arena would be built at Emperors Palace in Kempton Park to accommodate fans.

Barrera has lost only six times in 70 fights and is a year older than Baloyi. He has held the WBO junior featherweight, IBO featherweight, WBC featherweight and WBC junior lightweight titles. Among the opponents he has beaten are Naseem Hamed, the British boxer who held featherweight and bantamweight world titles, and Erik Morales, a seven-time world champion from Mexico.