Thread: Darren Barker wins Commonwealth Middleweight Title - Nigel Wright retains

Not sure if anyone else picked up on this, but it was quite a good night's boxing overall screened to very little fanfare by Sky, and I think most people there will have gone home entertained, if not happy (Lenny Daws fans). Here's how I called it.

In the headline fight, Darren Barker comprehensively outboxed the willing, but one-dimensional Ben Crampton from Cessnock, New South Wales, Australia, showing tremendous accuracy and tenacity to cover the 12 round distance for the first time in his career, and withstand a late rush from the Australian desperately seeking a knockout.
In the early rounds Barker was accurate in his shots, frequently piercing the Crampton guard with hard jabs and straight shots, and working the body to open Crampton up. In the fourth round a ringing Barker shot nearly sent Crampton down, whose knees buckled, but regained himself just as both legs grazed the canvas. Despite the ensuing onslaught, Crampton drew on his determination, and survived the round, although it seemed inevitable that Barker had the power and accuracy to finish Crampton off.
As the rounds passed Crampton found new resolve, and with a tighter guard deflected more of Barker's jabs and straight shots, who flurried frequently only to find his shots meeting the guard each time. In the last three rounds Crampton finally came out of his shell and caught Barker with some solid left hooks to the body, and some hooks upstairs as well, but was always outboxed in the latter stages. The generous Dave Parris gave the score of 119-110, whilst more accurate were the two other scores of 120-108. Barker's first six rounds were a delight to watch, but in the latter stages his inexperience over the distance was overcome by his will to win and a good workrate.

In the co-feature, Nigel Wright managed to cling on to his English Light-welterweight title by the skin of his teeth, scraping a draw over ten-rounds against challenger Lenny Daws. Wright had the best of the early stages of the fight, but Daws picked his game up in the middle to late rounds, landing some decent shots and seeming to rattle Wright. Wright came out of the corner firing all guns, potato guns and pea shooters at Daws in the last round, and did enough to claim the draw and hang on to his title. Now they need the rematch on a friday night where it'll det due attention.

Hey Rhun. I nearly came on to do an RBR on this but i figured you'd picked up on it. Barker was superb last night. He won every round against Compton and looks to have a really good future at Middleweight. He looked pretty choked up in the interview afterwards, as you can imagine after his family tragedy.

I felt Wright just about beat Daws. his jab was better and Daws did alot of holding for me that broke the fight up. Wright looked in good shape last night, and deserved to retain his belt. Maybe a draw was fair, because it was close, but at least Wright keeps his title.

Do you think to keep the UK board buzzing, we should keep all British RBR's on here?

To be honest with you, I think if i did the British RBR's on here, I'd be talking to you, Smashup when he's not out on the razz and these four walls.

The echo could be terrible.

I always find it quite surprising how many British guys on here don't seem to follow Brit boxing.

I mean, those fights last night weren't exactly the most glamourous bouts, but BOTH looked competitive good match-ups yet zero interest. I know lots of people don't have SKY, but I doubt they would bother watching half these Friday Fight Nights (I know ) even if they did.

How the funk did Daws ever beat Lynes? Wright fought better this time and it had draw wriiten all over it as they neared the finish.

Barker need to win like that. Good stuff.

I like Barker, but last night was unipressed, he made hard work of it. He didnt use the grey matter and Balance and feet were all over the place, needs to do better.

Originally Posted by Scrap

I like Barker, but last night was unipressed, he made hard work of it. He didnt use the grey matter and Balance and feet were all over the place, needs to do better.

come on Scrap...he looked good in the first half of the fight, just didn't do too well as he tired down the stretch, when he should have been looking to finish him.

Originally Posted by Scrap

I like Barker, but last night was unipressed, he made hard work of it. He didnt use the grey matter and Balance and feet were all over the place, needs to do better.

He was just getting back into the swing of things since his break. Twas his first 12 rounder against a very game undefeated opponent and I'd say he won every round. I think you're a little harsh there. It's all a learning curve at this stage, he's bound to make mistakes.

Slowly his Oral stabilty is getting worse. I always liked him at Repton he always looked like one to watch. His Posture is changing, so something is not what it should be, the warning signs are there sorry.

Originally Posted by superheavyrhun

To be honest with you, I think if i did the British RBR's on here, I'd be talking to you, Smashup when he's not out on the razz and these four walls.

The echo could be terrible.

Naw, all we do is put a thread on the main board saying lower class UK fights will have their RBR on the UK boxing board and get a mod to sticky it. More people will visit this board then, and things will be kept were they should be.

Originally Posted by bzkfn

Originally Posted by superheavyrhun

To be honest with you, I think if i did the British RBR's on here, I'd be talking to you, Smashup when he's not out on the razz and these four walls.

The echo could be terrible.

Naw, all we do is put a thread on the main board saying lower class UK fights will have their RBR on the UK boxing board and get a mod to sticky it. More people will visit this board then, and things will be kept were they should be.

Well I'm sure Smashup will eventually get around to having a look at this thread, so I'd appreciate his input on it...and anyone else in the higher echelons of the SB organisation's input as well.