By Ian Aldous: Saturday December 8th will see a big domestic middleweight fight go down at the Alexandra Palace in London. Former European middleweight champions will collide when Welshman, Kerry Hope (18-4) faces Darren Barker (23-1) live on Sky Sports HD in the UK. This week Kerry took some time away from training to talk with me ahead of the big fight.

In preparation for the fight, Kerry decided to take a six-round tune-up against Norbert Szekeres on the Carl Froch Vs. Yusaf Mack undercard in Nottingham. “To be totally honest with you, it was hard for me not to switch off and get a bit bored. I didn’t do anything too stupid, all I wanted to do was get the rounds under my belt, test my fitness and test how things are going with my new trainer, Gary Lockett. And not get cut, so, you know it all went to plan.”

Going into December 8th, this will be the first time that Barker will have fought since his unsuccessful shot at the best middleweight in the world, Sergio Martinez, over a year ago. Injuries have plagued his career with the fact being that he’s only fought four times in the last three years. Compare that to Kerry who has fought three times since March. “It’s a big fight for me coming off a loss against Proksa. I had a warm-up fight this weekend, getting the confidence back. Barker is regarded as one of the top middleweights in the country and the world. So, it’s a chance for me to come up against him and show what I’m capable of.”

It’s a fight that both men dare not lose. The current state of the stacked middleweight division would see another contender take the place of whichever man is defeated. “As far as I’m concerned this will see us onto bigger honours but I’m not thinking of defeat. I’m just going in full of confidence to get the win.”

The biggest night in the professional career of Kerry Hope so far, came when he got the opportunity to challenge Grzegorz Proksa for the European middleweight title. “Well, Eddie (Hearn) contacted my manager and said about the fight. We accepted the offer, you know, I think I’ve done things the hard way and I haven’t been wrapped in cotton wool like Darren Barker. He’s had the right fights, the right matchmaking. I’ve had to go to my opponents’ backyard and do it the hard way and it’s more rewarding then.”

It certainly was rewarding as he captured the European title from Proksa, who was being groomed for a world title shot (which he subsequently received against Gennady Golovkin, losing by fifth round TKO) and the title defence against Hope was seen as a mere formality. However, Hope fought a tremendous fight on the night and earned a majority decision from the judges.

Despite Proksa going into the fight as an unbeaten fighter and with all the momentum behind him, Hope had belief that he could upset the odds and take the title. “I honestly, leading up to it, I was thinking I’m gonna put a bet on myself because I did strongly fancy myself, I really believed. I train hard and there’s no reason why I couldn’t beat him.”

The re-match saw Proksa reclaim his European middleweight title. He had clearly learnt from the first fight, on this occasion stopping Hope in the eighth round. The two fights were televised on Sky Sports and allowed Hope’s stock to grow and receive the attention his hard-earned career deserves. “Like I said, I’ve done things the hard way, I’ve boxed as the opponent and I boxed as the opponent to win the European title. The thing with Barker, Macklin and Murray is they’ve all got different promoters who are taking the right paths, making the right matches and they’ve all had world title shots but all failed. None of them have won anything greater than what I have, so what’s the difference?” He continued, “Before I beat Proksa, none of them wanted to touch him, so I stepped in and showed what I was about.”

Hope was happy to give Proksa a rematch. “I don’t think it was in the contract to be honest with you, they thought he was gonna demolish me. I was obliged to give him a rematch because he gave me the opportunity to fight for the title. So, why not give him a rematch. I didn’t get a lot of credit from people but it was a chance to beat him again and prove I was the better fighter.” He couldn’t prove he was the better fighter but he proved himself to British boxing fans as a true warrior at 185lbs.