By William Mackay: #6 ranked WBC middleweight contender Darren Barker (22-0, 14 KO’s) has a fight coming up on April 30th against the hard-hitting Italian Domenico Spada (32-3, 16 KO’s) at the Olympia, Kensington, London, England.
This is going to be a tough fight for Barker and a real step up for him. However, Barker is already looking past Spada, and is eyeing a hoped for a fight against WBC Emeritus middleweight champion Sergio Martinez.
Barker, 28, thinks he can beat Martinez, saying “I know people think I’m bonkers even saying his name in the same breath as mine, but I fancy I could cause a mad upset, I really do.”
Whether fans think Barker is nutty or not, he’ll find out soon enough that he’s not in the same class as Martinez. Barker may find out in his next fight against Spada, because this is going to be a very tough fight for Barker and he could very well end up losing it.
Spada has been beaten three times in his career, but those were all narrow losses in fights against Mahir Oral and Sebastian Zbik. Those fighters are at the same level more or less than Barker, and Spada gave them huge headaches. Barker isn’t a big slugger and is mostly a technician who has fought 2nd and 3rd tier guys his entire seven-year pro career.
Spada is a leap up from the B level guys that Barker has been feasting on. We could see a minor upset here. As for Barker’s dream of seeing himself beating Martinez, I think he needs to sit down and take a good look at one of his recent fights and B level opposition and then compare it to what Martinez has been doing against world class fighters. I think that will be a cold cup of reality for Barker. But who knows? He could talk himself into a fight with Martinez if he keeps saying how he thinks he can beat him.
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