By Adam Fillingham

Last Weekend

Last weekend Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom sports put together an intriguing match up between Barnet’s ex European champion Darren Barker and world title challenger, Italian Domenico Spada.

Both fighters came into the fight wanting to win but it was clear from round one who was going to take charge. Darren Barker took the first 6 rounds (except for round two on my card that I had down as a draw) with the utmost ease. Barker had a strong jab, quick hands and connected on Spada’s chin with a hand full of powerful right hands. From round seven onwards Spada upped his work rate and made the fight messy. These tactics worked for a round and nearly had Barker in trouble but after round 8 the fight swerved back into the Brits favour. The only round I gave to Spada in the whole fight was round twelve.

Barker almost fought the perfect fight and for a fighter that hasn’t fought in a year, there were no problems with his stamina. The only part of Barkers game I would knit pick at would be his defence. Barker did let many shots through against a good (not great) fighter but when he steps it up to world class level those punches could take him out. That defence needs to be tighter.

Barker won a unanimous decision against the Italian. The final results were; 116-113, 115-113 and 116-113. My final card was 119-110 and I do not understand how the three judges marked the fight so close!

Up next for Barker is one more defence of his European title, hopefully against maybe Martin Murray or Andy Lee and then a world shot against possibly Matthew Macklin if he gets past the German world champion Sebastian Sylvester.

Other results on the card include;
Ashley Sexton W Mike Robinson PTS 78-76
Patrick Highland W Daniel Kodjo Sassou PTS 58-56
John Ryder W Lee Noble PTS 59-56
Phil Gill W Scott Evans TKO 1
Tyler Goodjohn W Mark McKray TD 4
Chris Evangelou W Ibrar Riyaz PTS 40-36
Andreas Evangelou W Jamie Norkett TKO 2

This Weekend

The legendary Prizefighter returns to our screens this Saturday in style. The 7th of May brings the first International Prizefighter tournament and includes the following fighters;

Gregory Tony – Ex French champion and European title challenger with a 14-1 record. Decent skills and power but has not mixed it with a high calibre of fighters. Could be a dark horse of the tournament.

Michael Sprott – The latest heavyweight Prizefighter winner and the ex-Southern area, British, Commonwealth and European champion. Has a record of 36-15 and is probably the most unreliable fighter in the world. One night he can be world class, the next he wouldn’t even win a southern area title.

Tye Fields – My personal favourite to win the tournament has a record of 45-3 with 41 knock outs. Although the American has enormous power he has been stopped in all three of his defeats.

Mike Perez – Undefeated Cuban heavyweight, 13-0, has been tipped as a high favourite to win. Will he? I’m not so sure. He’s been untested and with the level of opposition in the tournament we will have to wait and see.

Kertson Manswell – An unknown heavyweight from Trinidad and Tobago 20-1 who looks to have decent power but lost his last bout when he was actually tested, in a second round stoppage.

Lucian Bot – A Romanian heavyweight with an undefeated record of 14-0-1. Bot has never fought for a title in his short career but the undefeated fighters always have something to fight for.

Konstantin Airich – A good German fighter that won the German BDB title and has a record of 16-3-2. If this man is to win the Prizefighter tournament it will be a big upset.

I never like to hazard a guess as to who will win Prizefighter as I am always wrong and it is just so hard to pick a winner and get it right. If I had to choose I would go with Tye Fields but Michael Sprott but is also very high favourite.

Quick News

David Haye has been given a maximum of 7000 tickets for his fans in his mega fight with Ukrainian Wladimir Klitschko. Due to the demand from UK fans for this fight, the tickets are estimated to be sold within hours.

Amir Khan and Golden Boy’s deadline with Timothy Bradley was crossed earlier this week so the camp is looking at other options. These include Eric Morales and Zab Judah. Bradley was guaranteed to make 1.2 million dollars for the fight.

Carl Froch has signed with Barry and Eddie Hearn’s stable Matchroom sport. The “Cobra” left Hennessy Sport last week and was quickly signed up by his new stable. Froch will now be fighting on Sky Sports for the first time since 2009.

It is rumoured that Derek Chisora’s British title defence against Tyson Fury has been sent back to purse bids as Mick Hennessy was “unable to fulfil the terms and conditions of the British Board of control’s championship purse bid.” It has been a bad few weeks for Hennessy losing John Murray, Darren Barker and Carl Froch.

Nathan Cleverly and James Degale have decided to call it a day sparing with each other in preparation for their respective bouts. It is reported the pair were getting to competitive in the ring and did not want to lose any of their edge before the big night.

Kell Brook has been surprisingly stripped of his WBO intercontinental title due to the 120 day defence rule. Apparently Kell did not know about this rule but has been stripped none the less. The Vacant title will be fought for by Frankie Gavin and Young Mutley, neither fighter ranked high in any governing body.

Ricky Burns will be defending his WBO super featherweight world title on July 16th in Liverpool. Burn’s is reportedly not scared of losing a controversial decision there like his stable mate John Simpson did not long ago.

John Murray Vs Kevin Mitchel has been confirmed by promoter Frank Warren for the 9th of July.

Matthew Hatton could be staying in the world elite for a little longer by taking on world legend Eric Morales. Golden Boy promotions are really trying to put this fight on while they wait for a rematch with Marcos Maidana.