By Jason Kim: WBC Diamond middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (48-2-2, 28 KO’s) struggled with a slow start in the first six rounds to come back strong in the next half of the fight to scored an 11th round stoppage win over a tough but limited Darren Barker (23-1, 14 KO’s) on Saturday night at the Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, New Jersey. Martinez put Barker down with a cuffing right hand to the side of the head in the 11th. The punch reportedly perforated Barker’s left eardrum, causing him to hit the canvas in a lot of pain.

Also on the card, middleweight contender Andy Lee (27-1, 19 KO’s) defeated Brian Vera (19-6, 12 KO’s) by a lopsided 10 round unanimous decision in a rematch of their fight from three years ago, which was won by Vera.

Martinez, 36, looked sluggish for the most part in rounds one through five. He didn’t seem to know what to do with Barker, who fought a smart fight behind his jab and straight hands. Unlike the guys that Martinez has been accustomed to fighting in the past few years, Barker didn’t go after Martinez and instead hung back and just boxed. This made it necessary for Martinez to initiate the action and seemed very uncomfortable with that roles. However, when things started looking bad for Martinez in the 6th, he turned on the afterburners and finally began to pressure Barker in a consistent way. Martinez still didn’t look good, as most of his shots were picked off on the gloves of Barker. However, Barker wasn’t doing anything other than covering up and jabbing, and thus he let the fight slip away from him slowly but surely.

In the 10th, Barker was badly hurt by a big left hand from Martinez that had him covering up and trying to hold. Although he made it out of the round, it was painfully obvious that he wasn’t going to last much longer. Barker gamely tried to take the fight to Martinez in the 11th, fighting on nothing but fumes at that point. However, Martinez’s competitive spirit took over and he opened up with a series of hard 1-2 combinations ending with a cuffing right to the side of the head that pitched Barker forward onto the canvas.

In the Lee-Vera fight, Lee looked like a shorter, thinner version of Wladimir Klitschko in his complete domination of Vera. Lee used jabs and right hooks to catch the constantly forward moving Vera with shot after shot. The judges scored it 99-90, 98-91 and 99-90, all for Lee. In the 2nd round, Lee dropped Vera with left to the head. Lee missed getting a second knockdown in the 6th when he tagged Vera with a hard left hook to the head that sent Vera falling in the corner. Vera used on his right glove to keep from hitting the canvas. However, the referee Steve Smoger missed the knockdown. It really didn’t matter, though, because Lee was dominating the action as it was and he really didn’t need the additional points.

Lee started tiring in the halfway point in the fight, as his legs started to look rubbery and he had to stand completely straight up to throw his power shots instead of widening his stance to get more power earlier in the fight. Lee still continued to dominate though, because Vera was just too overmatched in this fight. The changes that Lee made in his style from this fight compared to the last fight, where Lee just stood directly in front of Vera, enabled Lee to dominate without getting hit a lot.

Vera had better success in rounds seven through ten, but not enough where he hurt Lee or won of the round. You could say that Vera won the 7th round, but I still think he should have lost that round because Lee was really drilling him much more than he was getting in return.

In other action on the card:

J’Leon Love UD 6 Eddie Hunter
Troy Artis TKO 3 Israel Duffus
Danny Lugo UD 4 Kevin Rooney Jr
Isaac Chilemba KO 2 Jameson Bostic
Sean Monaghan TKO 4 Kentrell Claiborne
Magomed Abdusalamov TKO 1 Kevin Burnett
Steve Martinez TKO 5 Jay Krupp