Round 10 Sloppy exchanges. Spada is lunging in with jabs and overhand rights missing by miles. Barker isn't getting much opportunity to counter as Spada grabs after missing. Nice left hook to the body by Barker. Barker continues doing good work to the body both during and between the clinches. Spada is barely touching him. 4 punch combo of straights to the face by Barker. Clinch. 3 punch combo now after they separate. Clinch. Spada is even missing his body shots while tied up!! Big left hook to the top of the hip by Barker. Messy fight, but constant action. The ref is on top of the clinches, breaking them quickly. 99-91 Barker
spada doesnt have much answers at this point, would be better if he kept his output along the middle rather than constantly looping and missing barker.
Round 11 They get right into a clinch and start arcing shots high overhead, both missing or just clapping each other with forearms to the brow. The referee lets it go for a moment before splitting them apart. More clinching, with Barker trying to work his hands on the inside. Straight flurry down the pipe by Barker. Another clinch. Spada is trying to get in and maul him but not really getting any punches off. Spada attempts a couple of hooks to the body and doesn't find them. Barker darts in and out flurrying. Spada grabs him and folds him in at the middle, pulling him in towards him by the pelvis like a cheeky dance partner trying a bit of frottage. Spada is just taking clean punches on the outside and looking to grab and grapple inside. Spada's punch stats are probably in the single digits. Attempted rabbit punch by Spada but misses. Barker slaps in with a limp 1-2, and then dodges an overhand right with just a slight lean of his head. 109-100 Barker
Round 12 Spada paste himself to Barker and lifts his arms from underneath, trying to push him back and make a pretzel of him. Barker is lolling around when let go (either voluntarily or on ref's orders) looking quite tired and would be probably open for punches from a sharper opponent. As it is, Barker is still able to evade Spada's badly telegraphed stuff on the outside and land ever softer flurries before getting grabbed and jerked around the ring. Spada steps in with a lead left hook while sliding his lead foot out - but then goes right back to grabbing. 5 punch flurry by Barker before straightening away from a grab attempt. Both warned for leaning in with their heads. Clinch. Clinch. Clinch. TERRIBLE fight, overall.
Barker made lemonade out of lemons, yeah. It wasn't a brilliant performance but he made do and got the W. Vazquez 115-113 Rosa 116-113 Roserio 116-113 ...all for Barker. Too close. Two of the judges are Spaniards. :think
I think we've seen enough crap from British judges to allow the Spaniards to want to try and screw "us" over.
It was a pretty good fight for the first 7 or 8 rounds the last 2 resembled a wrestling match as much as anything. I scored it 11-1 in rounds to Barker the judges scorecards were very poor how anyone could give Spada 5 rounds is beyond me.