Darren Barker wants Andy Lee

By Boxing News - 02/10/2013 - Comments

lee91By Scott Gilfoid: Former EBU middleweight champion Darren Barker (24-1, 15 KO’s) is hoping he can get the big 6’2” southpaw middleweight contender Andy Lee (29-2, 20 KO’s) in the ring in the near future, as Barker thinks he’s got the goods to beat the lanky Lee.

Barker said to Sky Sports “I really want to fight him [Lee]. I think style-wise he’s all right for me as a tall southpaw. Hopefully this could happen one day in the future.”

Barker has dropped out of the top 15 world rankings due the extensive amount of time he’s gone between fighting world class contenders after suffering an injury in 2012. Barker missed almost the entire year before coming back late in December to defeat Kerry Hope by a 4th round TKO. Barker is now scheduled to fight on March 9th, but incredibly he still doesn’t have opponent for that date. That’s not good.

Barker was stopped by Sergio Martinez in the 11th round in October 2011. Barker did give Martinez a tough fight by boxing him on the outside, but he was never going to win by fighting in this manner because he needed to mix it up with him but he failed to do so. Barker played it safe and got taken out and he deserved to be taken out by fighting in such a safety first manner.

I think Barker would get knocked out by Lee. As terrible as Lee looked against Fitzgerald, I think he would thrive big time against a long range fighter like Barker. Lee has problems against pressure fighters, and Barker is hardly a pressure fighter.
Lee, #7 WBC, #9 WBA, fought last Saturday night in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and had to struggle to defeat little known Irish fighter Anthony Fitzgerald by a 10 round points decision win on the undercard of the Carl Frampton vs. Kiko Martinez card.

It was a poor performance from Lee, who was fighting for the first time since his 7th round knockout defeat at the hands of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. last year in June in a failed attempt to capture his World Boxing Council 160 pound title. Going from that fight to a 2nd tier fighter in Fitzgerald should have made Lee look a lot better, but he still struggled in the exact same way he did in the Chavez Jr. fight.

It’s as if Lee hadn’t learned a thing from that loss because he repeated the same mistakes against Fitzgerald by backing up to the ropes and letting him unload with his shots. I mean, there wasn’t nearly as much danger compared to the Chavez Jr. fight due to Fitzgerald not having a lot of power, but it still wasn’t smart.



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