Macklin is not obliged to fight Barker whatsoever. Barker still has yet to beat a top 50 fighter. Why are people placing such a sense of entitlement for Barker when he has done **** all. Macklin is looking to fight someone ranked higher than Barker in Geale or Gevor so how is he ducking? Besides, a fight with Barker makes no sense for him right now, high risk low reward. Macklin isn't ducking him, he has bigger fish to fry. When Barker goes and beats a quality opponent and moves up the ranks he will have something to offer Mackin.
No Macklin is not ducking Barker. Barker has no world ranking, and a victory would not benefit Macklin in the slightest. Thanks to his rather inept promoter Barker is now playing catch-up. Prior to Elcock-Macklin, Macklin's career was going nowhere, and he was fortunate that Hennessy had only a few headline fighters, and was thus reluctant to pit two of his few belt-holders against each other. However since that win over Elcock Macklin's career has moved on at a pace, whilst Barker is still fighting the same substandard opposition (no fault of his own). I presume like most fighters Macklin wants the sort of fights that gets him discussed in wider circles, and not just on the Brit forum. The fact that this question is being posed is evidence of a ridiculously insular mentality.
barker is talented, but hasn't proved anything as yet to warrant even getting in the same ring as macklin. It would be a massive backward step for macklin anyway.
I think Macklin is "avoiding" a fight with Barker, but not necessarily "ducking" him. As indicated above, as talented as Barker is he hasn't actually put himself in a position to offer Macklin any reason to fight him. It's a high risk fight for Macklin that he doesn't need to take, unfortunately. So I can understand (but not in favour of) the "Why risk it if you don't have to?" mentality from Macklin's team. Personally would love to see the fight and I would fancy Barker to win it.
People need to realise that there is a big world out there with plenty of middleweights to fight. It's easy to get carried away with matchups within this country, but as stated above, the fact is that Macklin is European champion and on the verge of a world title fight. He needs to fight the right opponents to secure such a contest, whilst Barker needs to get himself a promoter capable of delivering similar fights for him to progress.