Iran the Blade Barkley,,How good was he?

I was at a big house party the night that fight was on HBO

 

Good fighter not a very good criminal though. I dont think your supposed to tell them before you rob them. Just sayin.

 

I think it was after the Van Horn fight and he was asked about his vanquished opponent, usually a time to be gracious and complimentary but Barkley snarled “I wouldn’t lose to that guy if I was drunk” (or words to that effect). I loved his bad arse attitude and the fact he backed it up in the ring.

Even the Benn fight he was mixing it up and backing Benn up while getting belted himself. That fight pisses me off so much because the three knockdown rule cost us an out and out classic in my view.

 

Benn and Barkley were only a million times badder than these punks today like Charlo and Eubank Jr

 

Barkley was coming off a year lay off because of cataract surgery and came down from 210 lbs to 160lbs when he fought Benn with no tune ups.

 

Barkley made that statement because Vanhorn was a college student with the nickname school boy.Another Barkley classic was after the first Hearns fight, he said he wasn't worried about the cuts because he didn't have time to bleed.

 

Lots of fighters---better fighters---would never have lasted and held up like Iran Barkley.
he'd been matched real tough and had lots of tough hard fights before fighting Kalambay even. Lots of guys go through their career's with 3 or 5 bouts where they dig deep and suffer wear and tear. This guy had that many from those early ESPN fights.

The attrition factor with Barkley is incredible. How he could last that long after being forced to absorb continued punishment is incredible. So very few boxers really can handle that degree of constant punishment

 

I don't see it like this
This is a typical excuse. Barkley did not defend himself at times. The thing about the Hearns fights was he won but he was damaged in the process. Hearns hit him more in his losses than most people and did the most damage to him. As for Benn- Benn won the fight. I am sure Benn would have an excuse ready if he lost also. All fighters go down in weight and he had good days when he won. And we can find excuses for the guys he beat also. The fact is he lost to Benn and was knocked down 3 times and didn't show much defense and he was hit very easily with the speed of Benn.. The speed of Benn is what knocked down Barkley not being layed off or losing weight. I always fell excuses in boxing insult the sport. These guys have been doing it for years and reach the high level and then all of a sudden they lose at that level they worked so hard to get to and they have an excuse for the loss.

 

Benn was unbelievable at that time. He was scoring 10-8 rounds against DeWitt without knockdowns, including the opening round. DeWitt was real.

 

Mediocre boxer, with average hand speed and far below average defense. Good height, but rarely used it effectively, often prefering to go to war. Tendency to bleed - a lot.

But, he had good physical strength and an immense heart, as well as a good chin.

The above positive attributes were used effectively against a fading Hearns and he was able to absorb a beating and get inside on Hearns, where he could exploit Hearn's lack of defense on the inside and his below average chin. Game over.

At the same time, he was easily outboxed by Sumbu Kalambay and Michael Nunn and beaten by an inspired, much better schooled Duran.

 

I know at some point they were in the Spades together, he mentions Green in his book.

 

Didn't know that. Thank you

 

Nunn's stock started to go down after the Barkley fight. Iran came on strong in the 2nd half of the bout. As I recall Nunnn did more running than fighting. I thought Iran won his title back.