Barker’s trainer looking past Geale fight

By Boxing News - 08/15/2013 - Comments

1803(Photo credit: Photo Credit: Mario Serrano – Gary Shaw Productions) By Scott Gilfoid: Tony Sims, the trainer for Britain’s Darren Barker (25-1, 16 KO’s), is already looking past Barker’s fight this Saturday night against IBF middleweight champion Daniel Geale (29-1, 15 KO’s) at the Revel Resort, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA.

Sims is looking towards fights for Barker against fellow Brits Martin Murray, Andy Lee, John Ryder and Billy Joe Saunders. It’s always interesting when the underdogs trainer is already assuming his fighter is going to win when in reality he stands almost no chance of winning.

The question isn’t what big fight Barker will be getting after the Geale fight, it’s where does Barker go now after a one-sided loss? I think it’ll be more about picking up the pieces of Barker’s career rather than a joyous occasion where he’s planning other big fights.

Sims – “He’d [Barker] have mandatories to do, but after that, the domestic fights are there. Martin Murray is a great fight…Andy Lee is another good fight, Matthew Macklin has to rebuild a little…there’s also some really good kids coming through like John Ryder and Billy Joe Saunders.”

Oh man, talk about counting chickens before they’ve even hatched. I think Sims should instead be talking about how h can rebuild Barker after this. I mean, if I was Barker’s trainer I’d be saying ‘Gee, I guess we can maybe get a fight against Macklin. He was just drilled, and maybe we can beat him as a confidence booster or something. Lee was really knocked out; he might be good too.’

Seriously though, Barker isn’t that good for his trainer to be coming up with this grand vision of him fighting Martin Murray, Lee, Macklin, Ryder and Saunders. Heck, those aren’t even good fights, not one of them. Murray looked like a sparring partner in losing to Sergio Martinez last April. All he did was cover up for 12 rounds. What an awful fight plan that was.

Macklin was just drilled in three rounds by Gennady Golovkin. Why would Sims wants Barker to fight him? Why isn’t Sims talking about a unification match between Barker and Golovkin? If you’re really confident in your boy, you’d think Sims would be working up a lather flapping his gums about Barker fighting Golovkin. Why have Barker fight a bunch of guys that already recently beaten or fighting little known domestic level guys? What a waste.



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