By Scott Gilfoid: Darren Barker (24-1, 15 KO’s) hasn’t even gotten past his opponent for this Saturday night in Simone Rotolo (35-3, 15 KO’s), and already he’s looking past him towards WBO middleweight champion Peter Quillin, who Barker thinks he can beat. Barker thinks he matches up well with the hard hitting Quillin for some reason, and I can’t see why. What’s sad is Barker is pining away for a fight he can’t even hope to get.
Barker said to thesun.co.uk “We’ve been looking at Quillin, and I’d love to go to the States to fight him. I truly believe I can beat him.”
Well, there are a couple of problems getting in the way of the 30-year-old Barker landing a fight with Quillin. First off, Barker isn’t ranked in the top 15 by any of the alphabet sanctioning bodies in the middleweight division, and there’s no way that Quillin is going to waste a title defense against a 2nd tier fighter.
He’s not going to do that, and if he tried HBO would likely say no to the fight immediately upon seeing that Barker is a 2nd tier guy without the needing ranking to make it something boxing fans wouldn’t complain about. And, more importantly, Quillin isn’t going to waste a title defense on a guy that casual American boxing fans aren’t familiar with. Barker may be well known in the UK, but he’s a total unknown among casual American boxing fans.
Heck, Quillin might as well throw a bunch of names in the hat and blindly grab one because his selection would be about as interesting to U.S fans as it would if he selected Barker.
If Barker wants to fight a talent like Quillin then he needs to come over to the U.S like Matthew Macklin, and fight guys over there instead of fighting all of his bouts in the UK. Barker should be fighting this Rotolo guy in Las Vegas instead of at the Wembley Arena in London, UK. At least Barker would be setting the table for a fight against Quillin.
As for Barker beating Quillin, I don’t give him a chance in a million. Quillin is too fast, too strong and too talented for Barker. I hate to say it but Barker would likely get poleaxed like he was in his loss to Sergio Martinez. It wouldn’t be pretty, believe me. Barker’s better off staying at home in the UK fighting guys like Kerry Hope and Rotolo.
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