British Boxing: Dazzling Display By Barker In Canada!

On Friday night, Hennessy Sports and The Fight Network promoted a 10 round non-title middleweight contest between “Dazzling” Darren Barker of London, England and iron-chinned Canadian Larry “Razor” Sharpe at the River Cree Resort in Enoch, Alberta, Canada.

Undefeated Barker, the Commonwealth Middleweight Champion, was looking for his eighteenth win but veteran southpaw Sharpe lets him know at once it won’t be easy as he immediately locks the arm of Barker in the opening seconds of the first frame – for which he is reprimanded by the referee.

Moments later, the longer-reaching Barker lands a good left. An evenly matched first round but with Sharpe backing Barker up to the corner in the last minute – he gets away from the ropes and lands a “sweet” straight right to the nose of the Canadian.

A good second round from Barker but Sharpe comes out punching as they start round three and Barker covers up well. With just over a minute of the frame to go, Barker misses with a left uppercut, but follows with a great straight right punch and Sharpe’s knees dip as he stumbles off balance.

Sharpe manages to keep upright as Barker forces him against the ropes. Sharpe has sustained a cut to the left eye as they end the third round.

The men trade on fairly even terms and things don’t really open up until after the sixth frame. Despite landing a few good body-punches, Sharpe takes a lot of shots to the head area in round seven.

Sharpe seems more motivated as he flies out for round eight and with Barker backed on the ropes – lands more body-shots, but Barker stays calm and works his way out with some short shots on the inside.

The tenth and final round sees Sharpe “going for it” in the opening seconds and manages to land a good left. It was a better round for Sharpe, who threw a flurry of shots in the closing seconds but it was “too little too late” and Barker wins by UD, 97-93 on all three “cards”.

Darren Barker stays undefeated, improving his record to 18-0 (11) while Larry Sharpe sees a six fight win streak snapped and falls to 22-5 (10).

On the undercard, American middleweight Tyron Brunson, who set the consecutive first round KO record in March of this year, was pushed hard in a six rounder by 31 year old Mexican-American welterweight Antonio Soriano in a light middleweight contest.

Soriano was taking a beating during the first three rounds but came very close to knocking off the undefeated record of Brunson after switching to an inside attack and pummeling the American slugger over the last three frames to force a majority draw on scores of 56-56, 56-56 and 58-56.

Soriano had lost his last four, with none of the bouts held at over 151 pounds, but held an advantage of experience over the Philadelphian, having boxed 101 rounds against Brunson’s 19 going into the contest.