By Scott Gilfoid: Undefeated Darren Barker (22-0, 14 KO’s) looks to go over old ground by attempting to recapture his EBU middleweight title tonight against the hard hitting Domenico Spada (32-3, 16 KO’s) in a scheduled 12 round bout at the Olympia, Kensington, in London, England. Barker, who is ranked highly in the middleweight division, wants to recapture the European Boxing Union title which he recently had to give up due to a bad hip injury that required surgery.

Barker was supposed to have fought Matthew Macklin last September but the hip injury prevented that fight from happening. Barker will now be fighting after an entire year off. His last bout was last April in 2010 against Affif Belghecham. Barker won the fight by a fairly close 12 round unanimous decision but looked far from impressive in that bout. The hand speed just wasn’t there for Barker and his punches looked to be so badly telegraphed it wasn’t even funny. Barker showed good power when landing his shots, but then again he had someone that was just standing in front of him and rarely throwing punches with Belghecham.

In the 9th round, Belghecham suddenly came alive for the first time in the fight and ended up battering Barker for the entire round. It was pretty brutal and it showed how wide open and defenseless Barker is, as he just took punch after punch for the tire round. Frankly, I was surprised that the fight wasn’t stopped because Barker looked awful.

In picking Spada, Barker has another plodder much like Belghecham. Spada doesn’t throw a lot of punches and seems to fight in spurts. Like Belghecham, he’s short and compact and throws with a lot of power on the inside. However, he’s a limited plodder and seems to be the perfect opponent for Barker to beat. But it’s not exactly saying much because Spada doesn’t have a high work rate is someone that can be easily out-boxed if you use movement and a jab.

Barker should win this fight but I can’t see him doing much more in the division. He’s too slow and predictable. You put him in with someone like Sergio Martinez or Dmitry Pirog and he’s going to have problems. I think Barker might be able to pick up a paper title if he can get a shot against WBC middleweight champion Sebastian Zbik before someone whips him but that’s about it. If Spada attacks Barker hard for one sustained round, I think he can win this fight. Barker becomes a punching bag when he gets attacked hard and all it takes is three minutes of sustained punching and I can see this fight being stopped.