Darren Barker

Barker confident he’ll beat Sturm in style

by

barker382By Scott Gilfoid: Having barely won his last fight against Daniel Geale last August by a 12 round split decision, IBF middleweight champion Darren Barker (26-1, 16 KO’s) expects to win handily in his first title defense against Felix Sturm (38-3-2, 17 KO’s) at the Porsche Arena, in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Barker, 31, will be the visiting fighter and he’ll be at a huge disadvantage if the fight does to the cards. He’s got to hope that he can get the strong-chinned Sturm out of there, because his chances of winning a decision are slim at best.

Barker faces Sturm on December 7th in Germany

by

barker44By Scott Gilfoid: IBF middleweight champion Darren Barker (26-1, 16 KO’s) will be making his first, and perhaps his last title defense on December 7th against former WBA 160 lb. champion Felix Sturm (38-3-2, 17 KO’s) at the Porsche Arena, in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

One of the questions that Barker’s British fans are asking is why did Barker’s promoter Eddie Hearn choose to have Barker defend his title in Sturm’s adopted country of Germany rather than the UK. It’s pretty simple. Sturm is a huge draw in Germany, and a fight between him and Barker will bring in a guaranteed huge gait over there.

Unfortunately, Barker isn’t a huge star in the UK, and it’s doubtful that a fight between Barker and Sturm would have many anywhere close to the same kind of money that it will in Germany.

Geale: It would be easier if I fought Barker again

by

barker66By Scott Gilfoid: Former IBF middleweight champion Daniel Geale (29-2, 15 KO’s) is kicking himself right now for not having gone after Darren Barker (26-1, 16 KO’s) after knocking him down in the 6th round in his 12 round split decision loss to Barker last month on August 17th in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Geale says he had expended too much energy in the 6th round, and he didn’t want to go after him to finish him off after putting him down with a nice left to the body. Geale just wants a rematch right now against Barker, and he figures it’ll be easy to beat him in the rematch.

Martin Murray wants British clash against Darren Barker

by

murray64By Scott Gilfoid: #1 WBA, #8 IBF, #9 WBC, Martin Murray (25-1-1, 11 KO’s) is hoping that he can get a fight against newly crowned IBF middleweight champion Darren Barker (26-1, 16 KO’s) in a fight that would be a big deal in the UK, but not for the rest of the world.

Barker recently beat former IBF 160 lb. champion Daniel Geale last Saturday night by a controversial 12 round split decision in which the fight was decided by one of the judges giving Barker the 12th round. The thing is Geale totally dominated the 12th round, and had Barker clearly hurt.

Barker is now supposed to be fighting his mandatory challenger Felix Sturm next, but Barker’s promoter Eddie Hearn has made no secret of the fact that he’d like to see Barker face Murray in an all British clash.

Martin Murray hoping to fight Darren Barker next

by

MARTIN MURRAY believes a clash between him and Darren Barker would be one for the ages.

Barker won the IBF middleweight title at the weekend with a bruising 12 round decision over Daniel Geale.

And in the days since, the Barnet man has mentioned Murray as a potential opponent for first defence.

Murray has already proven his mettle at world level in two overseas title attempts and, if made, the fight would easily be the biggest all-British clash in the 160lbs division since the era of Eubank, Benn and Watson.

Darren Barker: A champion is someone who gets up when he can’t

by

barker333By @BoxingMuse: There was no better phrase to epitomize Darren Barker’s awe-inspiring performance than the quote by former heavyweight champion of the world Jack Dempsey who stated; “A champion is someone who gets up when he can’t”.

This was exactly the case when middleweight Darren Barker’s rose from the canvas in the 6th round after being dropped by a tremendous body shot from the underrated Australian. The bout was close and entertaining in the early rounds both boxers throwing hurtful calculated shots but this match-up soon turned into a Gatti v Ward style thriller after the well placed shot to Barker’s liver caused the knockdown. The Londoner beats the count by a second, bites down on his gum shield tucks his elbows to his sides as Geale hammers away. Barker ties his opponent up for several seconds and then continues to take unanswered punishment for around 25 seconds before reigniting the fire within him and hurting the Australian with a combination of hooks. Geale looks fatigued as Barker closes out the remaining time as the aggressor, the bell sounding to mark the end of a potential ‘round of the year’ nominee.

Daniel Geale questions decision

by

geale55By Jose Muradas: Former IBF middleweight champion Daniel Geale (29-2,15 KO’s) felt that newly crowned IBF middleweight champion, Darren Barker (26-1, 16 KO’s) did not do enough to strip Geale of his IBF belt on Saturday night in Atlantic City. Geale, told Nick Walash of the The Daily Telegraph an Australian- based newspaper this on Monday.

Geale said “I’m no judge, But I don’t know that Darren (Barker) did enough to take my title tonight. I’m certainly not going to whine because that’s never been my go … but I just don’t know if he did enough.”

I can understand Geale’s frustration, but after watching the fight again, I felt it was Geale who didn’t do enough to hold on to his strap. Geale came out too aggressive in the early rounds, which allowed Barker to step back and land his right hand. Barker also worked the body.

Hearn looking past Darren Barker’s next fight against Sturm; wants Geale again

by

barker66By Scott Gilfoid: Eddie Hearn, the promoter for new IBF middleweight champion Darren Barker (26-1, 16 KO’s), is already looking past Barker’s first title defense coming up against former WBA middleweight champion Felix Sturm.

Hearn says he’s interested in matching Barker back up with Daniel Geale (29-2, 15 KO’s), who Barker beat last Saturday night by a 12 round split decision at the Revel Resort, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA.

Hearn says Geale is one of the guys he’d like to match Barker up again. Hearn is also interested in pitting Barker against Matthew Macklin, Martin Murray, Peter Quillin and Gennady Golovkin.

The Weekend’s Results

by

barker100By Rusty Nate: It was certainly an amazing weekend of action. I don’t think the results as they happened were a big surprise although if the results were reversed and happened the opposite way I don’t really think there would have been that much shock.

First up was Nathan Cleverly (26-1-0) defending his WBO World Title against the chilling puncher Sergey Kovalev (22-0-1). Well this result as I mentioned was not overly a surprise in who won the fight. I have thought for some time that Cleverly is a good solid fighter but his work rate is slow and methodical and he is hittable. This was proved in the fight with the relatively inexperienced (at the time) Tony Bellew.

Barker beats Geale

by

1823(Photo credit: Robert Epstein – Gary Shaw Productions) By Jose Muradas: The Revel Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, N.J. was host to a tremendous night of boxing in the 160 middleweight division. Australian Daniel Geale(29-1, 15 KO’s) put his IBF title on the line vs. Londoner Darren Barker(25-1,16 KO’s) Geale who won the IBF title from Sebastian Sylvester in May of 2011 has made four successful defenses of the the title which included a unification bout for the WBA/IBF titles against Germany’s Felix Strum. Geale lost WBA title for failing to fight mandatory challenger Gennady Golovkin. He fought fellow countryman Anthony Mundine (44-4,26KO’s) and avenged his only loss of his career.

Barker entered the fight coming off wins against Kerry Hope (18-5,1KO), Simone Rotolo (35-4,15KO’s), and a spirited performance against WBC middleweight champ Sergio Martinez back in 2011 which resulted in an 11th round knockout loss.