By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn says he wouldn’t mind putting his fighter Darren Barker (25-1, 16 KO’s) in with WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (27-0, 24 KO’s) if he can beat IBF middleweight champion Daniel Geale (29-1, 15 KO’s) next month in their fight on August 17th at the Revel Resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Hearn said to I Film London “Barker is going to own the IBF title then he can think about Golovkin, but he’s definitely not a fighter I’ll be cueing up to take on Darren Barker. Felix Sturm’s a lot easier than Gennady Golovkin.”
I somehow don’t think Hearn will choose to match Barker against Golovkin even if he does pick up the IBF title by beating Geale. I can see Barker going on a milking run if and when he picks up the IBF title and facing bottom dwellers in the IBF top 15 rather than facing a dangerous guy like Golovkin.
I honestly don’t think Barker would even beat Sturm. That would be a very tough fight for Barker and I can’t see him winning it unless he fought a lot better than he did in losing to Sergio Martinez two years ago by an 11th round TKO. That was the last time that Barker fought a quality opponent. He’s taken it easy in his last two fights, beating Kerry Hope and Simone Rotolo.
Barker is going to be making a huge, huge jump from the likes of Rotolo to face Daniel Geale next month and I don’t see him being ready for that jump. When you’ve not been seriously active in the past two years like Barker, you don’t put him in with a guy like Geale and expect good things to happen.
Barker loses that fight simply on not being active and facing quality opposition. Besides that, I think Geale would beat him even if Barker were active and fighting top level opposition, but the fact that he’s not been doing that makes it even worse for him.
Comments are closed.