By Ian S Palmer
Australian Daniel Geale will attempt to defend his IBF Middleweight Championship this Saturday August 17 when he meets Darren Barker of England at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. The 12-round bout will be broadcast in North America on the HBO Network. It’s always an interesting matchup when Australia meets England in any type f sporting condition and this fight should be no exception.
The 31-year-old challenger Barker stands just over six feet tall and has compiled an impressive 25-1 record along with 16 Kos. He is a former British, Commonwealth and European Middleweight Champion and knows his way around a ring. Barker is a legitimate contender for Geale’s middleweight crown. He had a shot at the WBC version of the title previously, but was stopped in the 11th round of a worthy title challenge against champion Sergio Martinez if Argentina.
Barker has fine boxing skills along with a pretty good defence. He’s better than average in most boxing skills, but he doesn’t really excel at anything and his power isn’t really anything to write home about. He will have a slight edge over the champion in age and height since Geale is now 32 years old and a couple of inches shorter at 5-foot-10. The Australian will enter the ring with a record of 29-1 along with 15 Kos. Like Barker, he isn’t considered to be a knockout artist.
He hasn’t had to be so far though to be successful since turning pro back in 2004. This will be his fifth defence of the IBF title that he won in 2011 with a split decision over Sebastian Sylvester in Germany. His only loss came against fellow Aussie Anthony Mundine in 2009 when he dropped a split decision to him. He avenged that defeat in his last bout in January with a unanimous decision over Mundine. He’s also defeated the belt against former champ Felix Sturm of Germany,
Geale has a good right hand and is quite aggressive once the bell rings. He’ll find out that Barker can take a good shot and is probably stronger than him as well as bigger. For Geale to hurt the challenger he’ll need to land a series of unanswered blows and the same could probably be said about Barker. Geale will need to establish his jab and land as many combinations as possible. Barker would probably rather brawl than box and he’ll try to turn the fight into a slugging match whenever he can. If he can achieve this he’ll have a slight advantage.
This is a good matchup between two equally skilled boxers. Both of them will be highly motivated and both have the tools to pull out a victory. It’s important to remember that the bout is being fought on neutral ground. Like many other evenly-matched fights, this one will depend on who dictates the action and is the most aggressive. This will probably be Barker while Geale attempts to use the ring and outbox him. This should be a close contest and a coin toss could be as good as any other way to predict a winner. After 12 rounds, look for Geale to hang onto his belt with a close decision.
