By Scott Gilfoid: In a card loaded with mismatches pretty much from top to bottom, former EBU middleweight champion Darren Barker (25-1, 16 KO’s) did defeated an over-matched opponent Simone Rotolo (35-4, 15 KO’s) by a 4th round injury stoppage on Saturday night at the Wembley Arena in London, UK.
The fight was halted after the 4th round due to the 37-year-old Rotolo complaining about having injured his right hand. As far as the victory goes, you’ve got to give Barker’s promoter Eddie Hearn full credit for the win because he’s the won that matched Barker against the light hitting Rotolo, who rarely threw punches during the fight.
When you get match-making like this it doesn’t take a whole lot to get a victory. Barker had the fight won just by walking out there and throwing jabs because Rotolo was just so, so, so out of his class that it was embarrassing.
What was really embarrassing was that the fight was put together in the first place because Barker should be fighting world class opposition instead of fodder every time out.
Barker knocked Rotolo down in the 1st round with a series of big shots. In the 4th, Barker had Rotolo hurt against the ropes and was really teeing off on him. Somehow, the Italian fighter made it out of the round, but it was painfully obvious he wasn’t going to last too much longer had the fight continued. In between rounds, Rotolo said he hurt his hand and the fight was promptly halted.
I wasn’t impressed with what I saw from Barker. He missed a heck of a lot of shots, and just looked like an average middleweight. I know he wants to fight WBO middleweight champion Peter Quillin, but I wouldn’t recommend he do so because Quillin would blast him out.
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In another mismatch on the card, super middleweight contender George Groves (17-0, 13 KO’s) easily beat Argentinian Dario Balmaceda (11-7-2, 7 KO’s) by a 3rd round stoppage. Groves knocked the 28-year-old Balmaceda down twice in the fight, once in the 2nd round a right hand to the body, and a final time in the 3rd round from a right hand to the head.
Groves showed little in the way of finesse during the fight, as he just stalked Balmaceda around the ring, hitting him as hard as he could with every punch. Groves loaded up with everything he threw and didn’t look like a skilled fighter. If Groves was in there with a talented fighter like Andre Dirrell or Anthony Dirrell, they would have countered him each time he loaded up on one of his big home run swings.
Groves is supposed to be improving, but I’m just not seeing any improvement in his game since his controversial decision over James DeGale in 2011. If anything, Groves is getting worse instead of better. Back then he at least was trying to box and show some skills. Now all he does is try to slug, and he doesn’t look good doing it.
After the fight, Groves’ promoter Hearns talked about Groves fighting on the undercard of the Carl Froch vs. Mikkel Kessler fight card on May 25th against supposedly a good opponent. This is going to be interesting to see who they drag out there for Groves to fight. My guess is some bottom feeder super middleweight for Groves to look good against.
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In another mismatch, the junior middleweight sized welterweight Lee Purdy (20-3-1, 13 KO’s) defeated 36-year-old replacement opponent Cosme Rivera (35-16-3, 24 KO’s) by a 9th round stoppage. The fight was halted in the 9th due to cut on the side of Rivera’s right eye. Technically the fight was a TKO, but wasn’t like Purdy actually stopped with his fists because there was no way he was going to stop Rivera. That just wasn’t going to happen.
Rivera was too slick, and he was starting to get to Purdy in the 8th and 9th rounds. In fact, Rivera shockingly staggered Purdy, #10 WBO, with a right hand to the chin. Purdy retreated immediately like he scalded by hot water and took punishment for the remainder of the round. In the 9th, the referee twice stopped the action to have the ringside doctor examine Rivera’s cut. On the second examination of the cut, the doctor halted the fight.
Purdy knocked Rivera down in the 1st round with a textbook left hand rabbit shot to the back of the head. The referee failed to see that it was a shot to the back of Rivera’s had and ruled it a legitimate knockdown. Clearly, it wasn’t and Purdy continued to throw rabbit shots every now and then.
What struck me about this fight was how huge Purdy looked compared to Rivera. He looked like a stout, little middleweight in girth, but without the power. I know he had failed to make the welterweight limit, but good god man they should have had a rehydration limit because the guy looked two divisions above Rivera in size.
I can’t see Purdy doing anything in the top tier. He looked really average, and no way like a legitimate top 10 contender.
All in all, it was a terrible card filled with horrible mismatches. If Hearn is going to be setting up his fighters in fights like this I don’t know how Sky Sports can put up with this kind of slop. Having these fights televised is just an eyesore for fans.
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