[url] This content is protected [/url]: I don’t get it. A bloke presumably dreams of fighting for a world title from the time he takes up boxing as a child or young man. Then, when he has the opportunity to realize that dream, he doesn’t give himself a chance to win. You gotta throw punches if you want your hand raised, mate. Barker obviously is a good boxer. Martinez struggled to hit him cleanly for almost the entire fight, which is saying something give the champ’s ability. However, that’s only part of the equation. You’re merely surviving if you don’t take the risks necessary to score points or hurt your opponent, which describes Barker’s night. Yes, the final result probably gives us an idea of what would’ve happened had Barker taken risks earlier. Still, unless you have the ability of a Pernell Whitaker, that’s generally the only way to win. And isn’t that the objective? To win What are everyones thoughts on this? I Think its terribly disrspectful. the guy was a 26-1 underdog, and going into round 11 he was only a couple of rounds down against the best middleweight in the world. He bloodied up martinez and fought the fight of his life. For the Ring to put this as there conclusion of his night is disgraceful. He was a 26-1 undergod for christ sake, and he was very competetive.
The Ring's reporting has about as much clout as the daily star these days, and with articles like this you can see why
Prior to this fight, Martinez was a superman. Then Barker broke his nose and made him realize he is a mortal man
you probably didnt see it in america because i heard HBO didnt even offer him an interview after. But in the interview for English TV, he weas co crushed and gutted about losing the fight he could barely talk. To question that this guy didnt want to win the fight is ludicrous
Too harsh. There's a grain of truth in it since there's always room for criticism in a performance, but he outperformed everyone's expectations.
Yeah HBO was disgusting they didnt give Barker any credit and pretty much said the same thing as The Ring is saying right now. Barker did the best he could and made Sergio look like **** for 90% of the fight. One thing HBO got right was that they said Barker is definitely laying the blueprint for how to beat Sergio and I agree 100%.
The whole idea that Barker should have simply thrown more is foolish. He made up for a massive gap in talent by fighting a solid, technical fight, and managed to generally walk the Middleweight champion of the world down behind a good jab. It's not like Martinez was constantly outworking him either, he'd just let loose a burst of several punches - almost all of them blocked - and then go back to inactivity himself. I hate the little bit about Whitaker too. Yeah, he was always getting outworked. :roll:
i agree. especially the first 6 rounds. i had him winning. as martinez was barely landing, and barker was far more accurate.
What a joke. HBO didn't interview him, either? That's disgraceful. Barker can hold his head high. I thought he performed exceptionally well. His stamina wained in second half, which is why he stopped moving and throwing punches. But before that, he had Martinez puzzled. Going into the 10th round, he was only behind by one round on my scorecard. If that's called surviving, then I honestly don't know what to say.