Barker vs. Hope on Saturday, December 8th

By Boxing News - 12/06/2012 - Comments

By Scott Gilfoid: Former Commonwealth and EBU middleweight champion Darren Barker (23-1, 14 KO’s) will be fighting on Saturday night against contender Kerry Hope (18-4, 1 KO’s) in the main event at the Olympia, in London, UK.

This is fight is now the main event after Lee Purdy had to pull out of his scheduled fight with Carson Jones after suffering an injury during an automobile accident. Barker hasn’t fought in over a year, and it’s doubtful that he’ll be anywhere close to the same level he was at when he last fought. Barker lost to Sergio Martinez by an 11th round TKO last year in October.

Hope, 31, is going to be a real problem for Barker unless Barker is at or near the same level he was in his fight with Martinez. Hope does well against fighters without a lot of power, as he likes to throw a lot of punches and stay in his opponent’s face all night long. Barker really isn’t much of a puncher. He’s more of a stiff, straight up jabber type of fighter.

That style isn’t going to cause Hope the same kinds of problems that the big puncher, southpaw Grzegorz Proksa caused Hope last July in his 8th round TKO loss to Proksa. Hope has a good chin, but Proksa’s power was too much for him and eventually wilted in the 8th round. Barker isn’t going to be able to do that with Hope because he’s not nearly the puncher that Proksa is.

Hope rebounded from his loss to Proksa by beating journeyman Norbert Szekeres by a 6 round points decision last month in Nottingham.

I expect Barker to be stiff from his injury problem as well as his inactivity when he enters the ring against Hope tomorrow night, and I think it’s going to slow him down just enough for Hope to give him a beating and come up with the victory.