It hasn’t been the 2010 that British Middleweight Darren Barker was hoping for. While he’s maintained his undefeated record, he’s been bogged down with a persistent hip injury that has seen him fight just once this year back in April.
That win saw him pick up the Vacant European title against teak tough Frenchman Affif Belghechem, who he bested over twelve rounds. The longstanding hip injury however wasn’t getting any better and Team Barker decided that they could no longer continue to fight anything less than 100%.
So Barker underwent surgery, over the course of the summer it was announced that Barker would defend against British rival Matthew Macklin in one of the most anticipated domestic showdowns of recent years. The fight was scheduled to appear on the “Magnificent Seven” show in Birmingham on 18 September.
It seemed too good to be true, and sadly that proved true when less than a week from fight night Barker was forced to pull out. The hip injury hadn’t healed; he was still in pain when he made the heart wrenching decision to pull out of a fight he also couldn’t wait to fight in.
His trainer Tony Sims said of the injury “Every time he ran it was hurting him, it got to the point where he couldn’t walk properly, that’s why it was necessary to have the operation”
“We went to Tenerife to train and he did one run there and he was in agony, we were out there for 2 weeks in a place where you do road work, we’d flown all that way and he couldn’t run up the mountain. That was the whole reason we were there. We knew when we came back there was no way we could fight (The Macklin fight)”
As the old saying goes the show must go on, the honourable Barker relinquished his treasured European title that Macklin dually picked up on the aforementioned “Magnificent Seven” card. The proviso being that Barker would have a direct shot at the European title when he returned from injury. “When he tried to come back for the Macklin fight, he never gave it long enough”
Adding “He did the hip 2 year previous, in reality I wish he had got it done then. The runs were becoming smaller and smaller because of the pain, in the end he couldn’t even walk”
When asked about Barker wanting to fight Macklin, Sims offers this about his charge “For two years we were chasing Macklin. Barker should of fought Elcock when Elcock was (British) Champion but Hennessy didn’t want them to fight but then the board took it to purse bids Barker, Elcock, Macklin & McDermott and they made a strange decision to make Darren fight McDermott in a final eliminator and Macklin straight in with Elcock”
“We won the final eliminator, Macklin won, good luck to him but I think Darren would of done the same thing to Elcock anyway. We wanted him then, he was the one avoiding us at that time. The Amin Asikainen fight he won, but you have to remember Asikainen was 33 and had been knocked out twice before he fought Macklin”
Though remaining respectful of Macklin’s ability Sims says “I think the two best names he beat were over the hill and knocked out before, they weren’t undefeated”
While believing that the British showdown will happen eventually after both guys were forced to pull out of scheduled fights with each other through an assortment of injuries he hopes it’s for a world title when they can maximise one of the most interesting domestic fights possible at the moment.
Though he doesn’t think that they needed Macklin as much he he needs them “We sold 4,000 tickets for Darren’s European title fight while they can barely do 1,500, he needs us more than we need him”
It was just a waiting game and Barker along with his team including Sims had to sit tight and hope that given the time that the hip would get better and respond to physio and get back to normal. Like many things there is no exact science to it, it’s simply waiting. The doctor told them “With an ordinary person they’d be a 100% but with an athlete you never know”
There was a time when Barker and everyone around him thought he may have to hang the gloves up and retire from the sport he loves so dearly.
Last week Barker went back to the gym and after rigorous work outs seems to be getting back to where he wants to be. Thankfully the pain that existed for several months seems to of subsided allowing him to move freely. “The progress is good, he’s not in pain and that’s the main thing, we’ll just keep seeing how he goes” However he reasons “All the sparring aint going to be the same as an actual fight”
When asked how long it maybe until Barker can get back into the squared ring Sims offers “Where hoping for February, that will be 10 months then since he’s fought. It’ll be a ten rounder, until he fight’s his mind isn’t going to be 100% right. After that fight where we can shake of the rust we’re right back into things and ready for anyone”
Weekend thoughts: Full credit to Pacquiao, he looked sensational. Enjoy him while he’s here, a true all time great…Say what you want about Margarito but he took his licks like a man…It took Brandon Rios a few rounds but when he got into his grove he looked pretty good, especially for a guy who was called up at late notice…Back last September I headed to Miami and saw Guillermo Rigondeaux and thought he had the look of a Superstar, he was passive against Cordoba he looked more Erislandy Lara than Yuriorkis Gamboa, he can’t half throw a gut wrenching bady shot…Jones-Soto Karass was a war, rematch anyone?…I’m not sure what they feed them in Mexico but I wish I could bottle it Margarito & Soto Karass showed hearts the size of true warriors…While the Boxing world tuned into the happenings in Dallas, Britain had it’s Boxing business, in Wladimir Klitschko’s words “Heavyweight Championship of London” David Haye destroyed Audley Harrison. Hopefully now Haye will step up and fight one of the Klitschko’s don’t hold your breath though…Harrison reportedly earned in the region of £1 Million pounds, we really do live in an age of mediocrity. Word is the BBBC are looking into with holding some of his purse…While most British Boxing enthusiasts headed for Manchester, I headed 30miles or so east to watch the Britain’s next generation of top amateur’s, in the first Olympic Qualifier. The most impressive performance arguably came from former European champion Luke Campbell who put on a clinic over Ian Weaver by 23-6, there we also wins for Tom Stalker, Bradley Saunders, Anthony Ogogo & Simon Vallily…I also caught up with David Price who’s headed to spar with Dereck Chisora ahead of his fight with Wladimir Klitschko, he said he hopes to fight next early next year on the Sam Webb-Prince Aaron card in a step up fight.
