Spoiler - Darren Barker

[Finn]

that shouldnt of been stoped.

[alexpaterson]

No it shouldnt of been stopped but his right is so accurate McDermott didnt know how to deal with him but what a punch he looked brilliant his movement was top class foot and head great performance

[Finn]

No it shouldnt of been stopped but his right is so accurate McDermott didnt know how to deal with him but what a punch he looked brilliant his movement was top class foot and head great performance

thing is though is barker ever going to go further than common wealth champ the middle weight division being the way it is.

[alexpaterson]

No it shouldnt of been stopped but his right is so accurate McDermott didnt know how to deal with him but what a punch he looked brilliant his movement was top class foot and head great performance

thing is though is barker ever going to go further than common wealth champ the middle weight division being the way it is.

Ye MW is a tough division but if he wins the British i think he could cause Strum a lot of problems not sure about Pavlik or AA hes not ready for them yet but Strum in a few fights would be a cracking fight

[whiskey]

Good shout, Sturm would be a good fight for Barker in 2010.

[Spud]

I am really sorry here - Darren Barker is a nice lad - but nice lad do not bring home major titles - what I am getting at here is that despite clearly a very good DOMESTIC performance against McDermott - I honestly do not believe Darren Barker is remotely world class - yes whilst it was an impressive finish - I just see guys at the top end of Europe walking right through Barker once they catch up.

I have no problems in eating humble pie now Barker has proved his worth domestically if he proves me wrong - but I honestly do not believe he will go too much further - lets see him beat one of these:

The obvious one is:

Matthew Macklin - sorry Darren but Macklin beats you every day of the week.

If "Meaty Mick" cannot get a fight with Macklin then why not try one of these and everyone of them I think will prove a very tough fight indeed:

Arthur Abraham
Felix Sturm
Sebastian Sylvester
Roman Karmazin

Now if "Meaty Mick" is on his game and does not need my assistance as his matchmaker then why not get one of the following for Barkers's next fight:

Gennady Martirosyan
Javier Castillejo

The above 2 are for me the next logical choices - but if people think Barker beats Macklin then I honestly need to give up being a fan!!!

[confirmation]

spud is going fishing, lets see how many he can catch

[alexpaterson]

I think in a couple of fights Barker would cause Strum so much problems i think hes not ready for Strum yet give it 2 or 3 fights yet not sure how he would handle AA or Pavlik though

[mossy141]

would macklin beat barker?

[alexpaterson]

would macklin beat barker?

I dont think he would Barker has to much boxing skill for him Macklin would come in and Barker would just move and catch him i think Barker is a real class act

[exittored]

Whats his Problem with Barker? I see improvement by him in every fight and although he may never be good enough to beat the likes of Pavlik or Abraham, both of them will have probably eaither unified by fighting each other or moved up to Super middle so that'd leave a few belts to fight for in 2010 and he'd be in the shake with the best of the Rest.

Barker seemed pretty level headed to me and not rushing things. British Title and than European Title by the end of this year and than see if he is ready to make the next step for a world title sometime next year.

[rhino222]

barker would stand elcock on his head...therefore, if elcock can get a title tilt then barker deserves one..

[Hardcase]

Spud I really think you must have an agenda or something???
To say what you did about Barker is a piss-take!
Barker is 100% World class mate!
He has all the tools and is getting better and better.
He would at this point give a good fight to anyone in the division, I cant wait to see what
he does in the future.
In my opinion He will stop Macklin before the 7th

[TerribleTerry]

if people think Barker beats Macklin then I honestly need to give up being a fan!!!

Oh how times change Spud! Many moons ago when Meaty Mick was still in your 'good books' you took great pleasure in repeatedly telling me how Macklin wasnt up to much and how both Thirwall AND Dave Walker would smash him to bits. Once Hennessey said u couldnt put out the folding chairs at his shows anymore you soon moved on and started declaring the brilliance of the next fight camp that would let you be involved. Better in my eyes to be a genuine fight fan than a semi pro hanger on

[tyson]

Barker it seems is trying to copy Froch and cannot fight up close his skills were better as a amateur.
Macklin people forget was a world class Amateur himself i see it a entertaining fight but Macklin is more rounded can box and fight and i agree with spud he would beat barker , in my oponion not just beat him but possibly ruin him.

[confirmation]

Spud I really think you must have an agenda or something???
To say what you did about Barker is a piss-take!
Barker is 100% World class mate!
He has all the tools and is getting better and better.
He would at this point give a good fight to anyone in the division, I cant wait to see what
he does in the future.
In my opinion He will stop Macklin before the 7th

caught a fish there spud

[confirmation]

if people think Barker beats Macklin then I honestly need to give up being a fan!!!

Oh how times change Spud! Many moons ago when Meaty Mick was still in your 'good books' you took great pleasure in repeatedly telling me how Macklin wasnt up to much and how both Thirwall AND Dave Walker would smash him to bits. Once Hennessey said u couldnt put out the folding chairs at his shows anymore you soon moved on and started declaring the brilliance of the next fight camp that would let you be involved. Better in my eyes to be a genuine fight fan than a semi pro hanger on

you basically summed up this spud idiot in a nutshell. he did the same with witter and hatton. working for mick... witter beats hatton and all the rest. working for hobson... hatton beats witter and all the rest. he's not a real fan of the sport, he just likes being recognized and feeling important. working as a hanger on obviously made him feel important. i remember seeing him giving it the bigshot while walking in an entourage with a fighter to the ring... thinking he was hard as nails. he's a complete idiot and its no wonder no one takes him seriously. whats even sadder is the fact that he's about 45.

and don't get me started on his forum history and why he is banned from every brit boxing forum other than this one (which he used to talk sh*t about), or that he banned half of this board on other forums for disagreeing with him or the particular outfit he was working as a hanger on for at the time.

[ERIC GUY]

spud loves the attention!!! is he only 45? wow, looks so much younger,

[TerribleTerry]

I didnt intend my comment to instigate another Spud mashing session - its been done to death here and elsewhere.

What peeved me was his comment that people picking Barker over Macklin need to give up being a fan.

Proper fans of the sport follow fighters for various reasons but none change their 'spots' as regularly as our Andrew.

You may band wagon hop from perch to perch Spud, but please don't try and say people should give up being fans of the sport because they disagree with your latest appraisal of who is a good fighter and who isn't; we all know that can change with the blink of an eye

[metropol]

great shot , certainly shouldnt have been stopped i know mcguigan was involved in a fatal fight and is very concerned for the fighters but it is a fight and mcdermott was well able to carry on parris has proven over the last 2 weeks that he is no longer a good reff. i think there needs to be some sort of review of refs and the way they are trained

[gobbles]

No it shouldnt of been stopped but his right is so accurate McDermott didnt know how to deal with him but what a punch he looked brilliant his movement was top class foot and head great performance

thing is though is barker ever going to go further than common wealth champ the middle weight division being the way it is.

AA and Pavilk will be super-middle by summer of next year

[Hardcase]

I like Macklin , but I just feel he will fall apart over 12 rounds against the ring savyness of Barker.
We all thought how good he looked stopping Elcock.

But after reviewing Elcock vs McDerrmott I just have to conclude Elcock is in Realality very poor.
So based on that I'm not sold on Macklins return to form? (But I could be very wrong as styles do make fights)

Barker just showed me that he could be the future of British Boxing.

[josh fg]

Who's Macklin fighting as his voluntary on the Maccarinelli undercard on June 27th.

I like the fact that Barker is getting good sparing including apparently against Froch and Kesslar and going the traditional root. McGuiggan's comment that he hoped they didn't fight for the british title because he'd like them both to try for world titles and fight down the line was for me everything that is wrong with boxing, if there are two good fighters from Britain then they should fight one another before they fight for world titles and it shouldn't be the expectation that they will avoid one another.

[Asterix]

No it shouldnt of been stopped but his right is so accurate McDermott didnt know how to deal with him but what a punch he looked brilliant his movement was top class foot and head great performance

thing is though is barker ever going to go further than common wealth champ the middle weight division being the way it is.

AA and Pavilk will be super-middle by summer of next year

Yep, though there are some good boxers coming through, like Danny Jacobs, Hassan N'Dam N'Jikam, Gennady Golovkin & Dmitry Pirog.

[chris s]

Thirlwall and Bendall were mentioned somewhere the other week for Macklin's next fight.