Ring Magazines Assesment of Darren Barker

I only saw the first 7 rounds from having fallen asleep after staying up to watch the fight and the undercard but I felt Barker did most of the effective scoring in the fight.

I had a feeling that the judges may have gone against him as he wasn't necessarily that aggressive but what can you do.. It's a catch 22 situation - if your too aggressive you can get caught and if your as aggressive as Macklin was against Sturm then you get accussed of not scoring effectively enough.

I thought Barker done well, he was elusive as McCloskey was against Khan and like McCloskey he made his opponent look very ordinary but he went a step further too and took the fight to Martinez and scored effectively when Martinez stood up tall and was in range.

Very unfair assesment and I'm glad to see the people on here were shrewd enough to notice that.

 

:deal He did his best.

Barker is not a bad fighter. To say that hes garbage is being unfair.
And to get his name wrong and then not even offer him an interview afterwards is a ****ing disgrace.

 

I was very impressed with the kid too, no doubt, I give him credit for having the mettle to take the fight and make it happen. Early on I thought he could do it and I had vcash on him, I thought it may be a trap fight for Sergio and his head was other places into the future before the fight and I thought he may be caught sleeping. He didn't look great, but that could be just as much to do with Barker being better than a lot of people thought, then Sergio having an off night.

 

always has been he's just a s**t ufc writer

 

I can see the writer's point (granted, that's only from reading the paragraph posted) that Barker wasn't active enough, but the bottom line is he outperformed what everyone expected of him and would've lasted the distance if not for the somewhat flukish perforated ear drum.

After the fight, I felt better about Barker than I did before hand. It'll be tough for him to earn another shot on the network, though. The afterthought treatment was in full effect and if guys who win over the house fighter get shunned, a guy who loses but makes the name guy look worse than he really is isn't getting called back. Out of all the names he's said, how the hell does Buffer mess up "Barker"?

 

i'd re-watch the hbo telecast before jumping on the bandwagon... i felt they gave barker plenty of air-time, with emmanuel steward lauding him for his discipline, sticking to what was an effective gameplan--crowding sergio, making him uncomfortable, making him miss, countering with sharp, short shots... the point they made was that he was doing everything to be competitive but not throwing the extra punches that would've made it possible for him to win... that's it... which i think is an extremely fair assessment.

 

Ring is right. Merchant was right.

Barker made it "close" by shelling up. While he did bust MArtinez nose in the 4th Rd, he got roughed up in the other rounds. And when he did open up, he got KO'd.

Sorry, but playing defense to keep it close by keeping your gloves in front of your face and not your opponent is not really going for the win - is it?

 

Barker fought a good technical fight and his mentality was spot on too. He just got worn down physically that was all. In Martinez you have Elite Level fitness and power and that's what won it. Barker was devastated afterwards but found the time to thank everyone for their support, impressive stuff.