What a stupid thread, Barker fought the wrong fight and set a pace to high for himself yet still won, he showed inexperience if anything. The last half of the fight he won 2 rounds on the backfoot whilst breathing out of his arse, i think too many people get drawn into what the commentators are saying and get distracted from the fight itself.
jeez reading through this thread was some craic alright, sorry i wasnt on here last night is nobody begining to realise that for these guys to get some fame and a bita money is that one of them picks up a world strap against say sylvester or a vacant belt and then have a merry go round between macklin barker lee and duddy- with duddy probably counted out because the bobfather is making him money in the US and the others staying here and getting some coverage. thought barker and lee would amount to much more than it seems they will which sucks
vera you kind of missed my point Mcewan so far hasnt shown any star qualities he's not the next best thing in scottish boxing you'll be foolishly mistaken about that. He didnt look that great against vera imo, sure he won but he looked knacked as hell towards the end of the fight and somewhere in the middle of the fight he was nearly put on his arse, and as for his other wins he was lucky to get the win against Darnell Boone FFS. Hes not as great as you claim Alfredo Angulo would show him up thats why hes scared of fighting him and i'd make Matthew Mackilin a favourite against him the man hailing from the highlands is all hype as far as i'm concerned just like other failed scotish fighters like alex arthur, Paull Appleby etc etc:good
Last night was very funny. Good luck to all the middleweights. Nice to see Dunky creep out of his pit to post too.
wow, didnt see the fight last night and just read through the thread now. It really got outta control on here last night!! whats that all about?? Sounds like Barker had a tough fight, that belgecham guy is actually not that bad, he's durable and would give anyone a good fight. I reckon Barker, lee and Duddy are probably all just about on the same level, hopefully now they can start fighting each other to make it a bit interesting. Mazallan, that is an amazing avatar. I hope she doesnt have a ****.
I'm not patriotic in the slightest, but i like Barker just because he caught my eye. I watched last night, he started off with such ring presence, then lost that. I had him ahead by the skin of his teeth at the end though.
i don't bother logging onto esb if i actually have the boxing on the telly rather than internet radio. the latter half of that fight was pretty painful to watch. barker was clearly uncomfortable with a relentless pressure fighter not willing to give him the space or time to get his shots off. i don't think the performance says anything about how lee - barker would go though.
All this talk about Barker and Lee makes me consider the similarities between Darren`s bout last night and the Lee/Vera fight. Both Lee and Barker were highly touted pre fight only to struggle against tough, durable opponents. I have already written on Eastside that Vera exposed a general weakness in Lee`s abilities ie his trouble with taking hard punishment and then adapting and going on to win. I felt that Darren Barker was exposed in that regard last night, albeit that he came away with a victory at the end of the night. There is no doubt that Darren is stylish and against lesser opponents he looks slick and dangerous. But last night it was clear that he needed room and time to be effective and Belghecham allowed him neither. Right from the start he was open to the Frenchman`s left, and as the fight progressed and he shipped more punishment, he weakened and his handspeed slowed. Not necessarily a problem for a quality fighter but Darren was totally unable to inject any variety into his gameplan. His corner was aware of this and their instructions at the end of the tenth ("get on your bike!") exposed this. I felt he did just enough early on but it was worse than ugly and I really feel Lee would deal easily with him. Vera is much better than Belghecham and would do to Darren what he did to Lee. Those of you who think that last night was just a "blip" should sit down and take a dispassionate look at the re-run.Before he started to run, Darren`s strategy was consistant throughout. By the end of round two, it was clear that it was "high risk" but all we got was more of the same. Even when the tide turned and he was shipping heavy leather....more of the same, even though it was clear that the gameplan was shot. The reason....Darren can only fight one way. I`m sad about what I saw last night. I really hoped that Barker, Lee, Duddy, Macklin and McEwan would all reach world class together and we`d see some great, top drawer tear-ups. But Lee and Barker look exposed and Duddy appears sub-stellar. I hope I`m wrong and that these three can improve but the signs are not good. With luck, Macklin will step up to the plate, and of course, I believe that Craig McEwan is still likely to do great things in the States.
Does anyone know why Chelsea fans have latched onto Barker. They seemed to be his biggest corp of support, being right rowdy and chanting all sorts of football terrace nonsense and ultra-nationalist sentiments throughout his fight.
There were chants about the holocaust last night apparently. Those people aren't sport fans. The are using sport as a way of venting their scum tendencies. Absolute filth. :-(
Kinda missed your point noob? You give yourself too much credit. Your points make no sense to me whatsoever. 'scared of Angulo' 'nearly put on his arse' 'man from the highlands' your posting so over the top stupid, you have to be an alias. So you are gettin ignored until further notice.
:happy I'm with you Dunky, I think MCEWAN will eventually come over with Roach and batter the english lads into submission, he is just binding his time.