By Jamie Fairclough: When this fight was announced I have to admit I thought that it had all the makings of either a fight of the year candidate or a bore fest depending on if both fighters let loose as both are known to have a tendency to box their opponents rather than brawl. Darren Barker has shown a bit more of willingness to stand and trade as he did in the Daniel Geale fight, but usually he relies on footwork and movement to beat his opponents which is odd considering he does have reasonable punch power. Likewise, Felix Sturm has good power but usually favours a more defensive game plan which so nearly cost him against Matthew Macklin.
Despite both men having a usually defensive style I saw this one being more open as Sturm has seemed reinvigorated by people saying he is on the slide and past his best, and Barker in his first title defense I saw him wanting to make a statement and stopping Sturm. So naturally I was disappointed that injury intervened early on and robbed us of seeing how this one unfolded, it was even more of a shame considering Sturm came out firing beautiful left hand leads barker always did his best to respond but it was obvious that he wasn’t moving right and looked very stiff. It was horrible to watch the pain in Barker’s face and how hard he was fighting just to stay standing let alone fight, it was clear just how much it means to him and great credit must be given for getting up twice in severe pain.
The underlying facts of this fight are that Sturm will want Barker to fight again as like most sportsmen he will feel he was robbed of doing the job properly rather than an injury intervening, Barker showed incredible guts and drive because after the second knockdown he was clearly in excruciating pain and was still trying to fight on. Thankfully his corner knew better and threw in the towel and depending on what doctors say that decision could determine if he fights again. I hope he does find a way back as this is no way for such a talented and deserving world champion to go out.
For Sturm it’s onto his first defense of his fourth world title in what is a very competitive middleweight division. He has so many options such as a rematch with Matthew Macklin, or maybe unification with Gennady Golovkin? We shall see but personally I’m massively looking forward to some exciting fights we could see in 2014, such as a possible Floyd Mayweather vs. Amir Khan showdown. Hopefully a George Groves vs. Carl Froch rematch, although that one is doubtful as even Froch despite all the testosterone fueled niggle knows Groves has the beating of him. I’m also hopeful of David Haye recovering from his shoulder surgery and returning to finally take Tyson Fury down a peg or two.
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