By Dan Ambrose: Not surprisingly, tickets are reportedly not selling for this Saturday’s match-up between World Boxing Council (WBC) Diamond middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (47-2-2, 26 KO’s) vs. British fighter Darren Barker (23-0, 14 KO’s) at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

This is what I was afraid of when I first learned that Martinez was fighting the little known 29-year-old Barker. Although Barker is rated in the top three by the World Boxing Council sanctioning body, he’s not well known in the United States, where only the hardcore boxing fans know of him.

Anytime you get a guy from Europe or elsewhere around the world and bring them to the U.S to take on a star or a semi-star, you’re taking a big chance that the ticket sales will be poor and the cable ratings equally poor. Thank goodness this isn’t a pay per view bout, because things would likely be looking really bad.

In hindsight, Martinez should have ignored Barker and taken on someone like Peter Quillin. At least that guy is somewhat known in the U.S. Even Andy Lee is a better option than Barker. I think they’re both about the same in terms of talent, but Lee has fought on cable in the U.S a number of times, whereas Barker is a complete unknown.

The only thing they can sell this fight on is Barker’s unbeaten record, which is littered with nothing but 2nd and 3rd tier opposition. To the casual fan, that kind of thing is old hat. They’re wise enough to know by know that a 23-0 record doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good fighter. It just means that the guy has been matched carefully.