British Scene Weekend Recap: Barker Battles His Way To Euro Glory

Dave Oakes recaps this past Friday night's European middleweight title clash between Darren Barker and Affif Belghecham.

Check out Dave's recap for the co-feature: Harrison Claims Euro Belt in Sensational Style

Photos © Justin McKie - photo gallery from both main-events

Darren Barker claimed the European belt on Friday night after he came through the toughest fight of his career, beating the surprisingly tough Affif Belghecham on points after a gruelling twelve round battle.

Looking his typically composed self, Barker started the fight well boxing behind a high guard and stiff jab, he landed the jab throughout the opener and was catching Belghecham with some meaty left hooks to the body.

The second was another round for Barker as he pummelled his French opponent with jabs and straight rights. The best punch of the round saw Barker land a beautiful left hook that seemed to momentarily hurt Belghecham, who gave a glimpse of what was to come when he fired back with punches of his own, including a left uppercut that landed flush.

Barker was made to work harder in the third with Belghecham standing his ground and delivering some solid blows from his southpaw stance. Barker seemed happy enough to stand and trade, delivering heavy shots of his own, but he was careless in defence and got caught more than he should’ve done. Despite this, he still did enough to edge the round on my card.

The fourth and fifth rounds were similar to the third, Barker was producing flashes of quality but Belghecham was always game and kept fighting back. Barker was still going to the body and was landing the straight right to good effect as well.

After the first two rounds, I thought Barker was going to slowly take Belghecham apart but the more the fight went on, the stronger the Frenchman looked. It was also making for a really enjoyable fight for the fans.

Sensing that he was in for a long night, Barker reverted back to hitting and moving in the sixth round. He caught Belghecham with a decent left uppercut early on and an exquisite one-two later in the round to take what seemed an unassailable lead on the cards.

Belghecham won his first round of the fight in the seventh when he started to penetrate Barker’s defence more and more with his left hook. Barker was starting to feel the pace and was beginning to look uncomfortable under the Frenchman’s constant pressure.

The eighth round saw Barker retreating and throwing pit-a-pat punches rather stepping in behind them. Belghecham was now starting to bully him and stamped his authority on the round with two clubbing left hands in the final moments of the round.

Barker battled back in the ninth, landing a barrage of straight rights that seemed to have Belghecham in trouble but yet again he came firing back and closed the round out well.

After a quiet round in the tenth when neither fight seemed to dominate, the eleventh saw Belghecham turn up the heat again; he was constantly moving forward and was giving an increasingly tired Barker a torrid time. Barker was landing the cleaner blows off the back foot but Belghecham was doing some eye catching work of his own and edged the round through effective aggression and work-rate.

A close final round saw Barker start with a great double left hook followed shortly after by a straight right. The rest of the round was tit for tat as Belghecham marched forward but failed to land anything solid, whilst Barker danced around the outskirts of the ring and didn’t look to exchange.

I thought the fight was very close (I had it 116-114) and wouldn’t have been surprised if it had been announced as a draw or split-decision, it wasn’t though as Barker took a unanimous decision 116-114, 116-112 and a rather strange 118-110.

I feel the hard nature of the fight will have done wonders for Barker; he now knows that not all fights will be a stroll in the park where he’s allowed to use his usually superior skills. Belghecham deserves a lot of praise for the way he fought, he showed that he’ll give most fighters a hard fight and I look forward to seeing him over here again in the near future.

e-mail Dave Oakes