Who performed best in defeat to Sergio Martinez: Darren Barker or Matthew Macklin?

barkers my local fighter, i watched the barker bros practically grow up in the am circuit but i really think macklin did better

 

Good thread. Pretty equal, but if I had to pick one I'd take Macklin.

 

Barker, and clearly at that IMO. With Macklin I, like Marnoff said above, had the feeling that Martinez was in control almost all the time (though pressured and having to work hard).

With Barker, I actually thought he stood a risk of losing after some rounds. It looked like Barker had figured out his rhytm of attcking, defending and countering and you could see that Martinez didn't like that one bit. Barker was patiently following him with the jab and made Sergio counter by feinting. Sergio would take the counter-bait and go forward. Barker would then either block the punches or take a step back and counter with his jab, just like Pavlik started to do in the middle rounds against him.

The way Sergio then adapted was very impressive.

I never saw this kind of sophisticated approach by Macklin. He did well by not getting stopped sooner, because he was open in his attack a lot of the time.

Macklin vs Barker is very close though. I could actually see Macklin winning that and would bet on him (don't have the time nor the space to elaborate, but Barker's high guard and not extreme power would play well into Macklin's aggressive, active approach, like vs Sturm).

 

IB on that topic.

I said from the start that Macklin was the perfect fight for Sergio. He likes and does well against pressure fighters which is what Macklin is.
Barker had a better jab against Sergio then Macklin. They both gassed though. (Barker said it was because he couldn't run enough because of his hip but thats now fixed)

If they fought i think Macklin would win he throws a lot of good punches and quality pressure on opponents. Just think he could KO Barker and don't think Barker could KO him IMO

 

Macklin for me. Macklin actually made Sergio fight. It made Sergio wonder what he was going to do to beat Macklin, and made me wonder for the first half of the fight whether Macklin might actually pull it off.

With Barker, I never thought victory was in doubt for Sergio at any point in the fight. It was really just a matter of whether Sergio could hit him often enough and cleanly enough to eventually stop him. Barker got some nice counterpunches in here and there, but there was never enough offensive activity from Barker to make me question how Sergio was doing on the cards.

 

I think they both did similarly well against him. They both caused him problems he had to contend with early before fading after the mid rounds.

They both boxed different though so it's a hard comparison to make, Macklin took the fight to Martinez more imo whereas Barker was happier to wait and pick his shots.

Both fights I saw varied scorecards mainly due to the early rounds not being clear either way but Serg definitely took over the fight in both matchups after the halfway mark

 

I think Macklin had the better performance..... BUT

I think Darren barker showed me something.... He kinda gave Dmitri Pirog a piece of the blueprint to beating Martinez

 

Barker for me

 

Wow, swap Barker and Macklin round and you get closer to how i see things.