By Mark Fletcher: Once again Hennessey Sports put on a great night of British domestic boxing, of course as expected Darren Barker added the British middleweight title to his commonwealth crown, Lee Purdy retained his Southern area title and hot prospect Yassine El Machi scored an impressive knockout, Yet the bout that caught my eye was the four-rounder between Sheffield’s highly-rated prospect Steve Barnes (then 3-1, 1KO) and Slough journeyman Ian Bailey (then 4-3).
Boxing fans know how it goes, a young prospect gets given a durable journeyman in a four round fight in which to help them adapt to the pro ranks, and most of the time that journeyman will either go for an early KO, or just try and get through the rounds with minimal damage so they can at least count their earnings. Usually the viewers expect the prospect to either score a knockout or just simply outclass their opponent on points. However this wasn’t the case….
I had no great knowledge of either fighter but as I watched the fighters make their way to the ring it was plain to see that Steve Barnes was the prospect, nicknamed ‘SuperBad’ and wearing a superman t-shirt (as well as his fans in the crowd) he looked confident as he strolled to the ring accompanied by his father and Dominic Ingle, I also took note when commentator John Rawling mentioned how Barnes is hotly tipped by Junior Witter and Kell Brook to go far.
After the introductions the first round was underway, nothing out of the ordinary, Barnes had an Ingle-taught switch-hitting style and was landing some solid looping shots at range, similar how Junior Witter does and was coping well with Baileys come-forward style using his jab consistently something than commentator Duke McKenzie said he hadn’t been doing in his first three fights.
Second round underway and the first minute was pretty much the same though Bailey wisely kept up a high guard allowing him to withstand Barnes shots. It paid off as Bailey found his opening and scored with some great body shots, something that Barnes seemed vulnerable to, for the rest off the round Bailey pursued Barnes around the ring and returning everything that was thrown at him, even landing good headshots in the last 10 seconds.
I was expecting Barnes to regroup and come out stronger in the third but it was Bailey who stepped up a gear having the most convincing round of the fight, Barnes was victim to some powerful combinations and at times it looked like Bailey might register his first stoppage victory as it was clear that Barnes was hurt as he had hardly landed all round.
In the corners Barnes trainer Dominic Ingle read him the riot act telling him that his career may as well be over if he couldn’t win this fight, whereas in Baileys corner trainer Johnny Eames was calmly saying ‘you can win this’ as if trying to put a bit of confidence back into his fighter who had lost his last four bouts.
Last round and the question on my mind was ‘had Bailey enough left to win?’ The first 30 seconds sadly made me think otherwise as it looked like Ingles words had got through to Barnes thus making him perform as he had in the first round but Bailey kept coming forward landing good body shots and keeping his guard up, something that Barnes couldn’t do through the amount of shots his body had sustained. I thought it was an even round though would the referee see it that way, we’ve seen it before when a journeyman has been robbed of a possible draw with the promoters prospect (e.g Louis Byrne against Phil Fury) but thankfully referee Jeff Hinds did what was right and Bailey got a deserved win. Where do they go from here?
Well, Bailey has bout booked with Liverpool prospect Stephen Smith (8-0 5 ko’s) so it looks like he will take whatever fight he can, though i’d like to see him matched carefully towards a possible Southern area title shot and Steve Barnes? Well with Ingle protege’s and former world champions Junior Witter (drawing two of his first eight) and Johnnie Nelson (losing his first three) deep down Dominic Ingle knows that his career is not over but will just need re-building.
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