Barker likely to defend EBU title once before looking for title shot

By Boxing News - 05/02/2011 - Comments

By William Mackay: Darren Barker (23-0, 14 KO’s) recaptured his EBU middleweight title last Saturday night with a hard-fought 12 round decision win over Italy’s Domenico Spada (32-4, 16 KO’s) at the Olympia, in London, England. Barker looked decent in the first half of the fight, albeit slow and predictable. However, in the last six rounds Barker can out of gas and looked pretty ragged in barely beating the plodding Spada by the scores of 116-113, 115-113 and 116-113.

Barker got the win but showed a lot of flaws that he needs to fix before he challenges for a title on the world level. Barker will likely choose to defend the EBU title against the best possible opponent. Matthew Macklin is ranked number #1, but that doesn’t seem like a possibility because Macklin has a fight coming up against WBA middleweight champion Felix Sturm.

Number #2 challenger Andy Lee, a southpaw, likely won’t see any point in facing Barker because that would be a backwards step for Lee. He won’t waste time defending for an EBU title when his main goal is to fight for a major title. There are a couple of obscure challengers like Gregoz Prosksa and Julien Marie Sainte. However, those aren’t interesting fights because neither of them are well known enough for it to be worth Barker’s while to face one of them.

Number #4 ranked contender Martin Murray might be a good opponent. He’s from the UK and is unbeaten at 22-0. However, Murray can fight and I can’t see Barker taking on anyone that can actually beat him at the European level. Barker will likely go soft until he gets a title shot against someone like Dmitry Pirog. I see Barker easily losing to Pirog in a one-sided loss.



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