Barker Wins Split Decision to take IBF Middle title from Geale at Revel Casino in Atlantic City Saturday!
Barker Wins Split Decision to take IBF Middle title from Geale at Revel Casino in Atlantic City Saturday! By Ken Hissner at ringside, Doghouse Boxing (Aug 19, 2013) TweetFollow @DoghouseBoxing
Australia’s IBF middleweight champion
Daniel Geale, 29-2 (15) lost his title by split decision to the UK’s
“Dazzling” Darren Barker, 26-1 (16) over 12 rounds at the Revel
Casino in Atlantic City, NJ, Saturday night. It was a good fight
from the opening round with Barker coming off the canvas in the
sixth.
Barker tried using his reach to little
avail until halfway through the first when he finally landed a hard
right to the jaw of Geale. Barker came back in the second round
landing some good combinations to Geale’s head. In the third
Barker controlled while both mixed it up at the bell. The fourth was
a close round as the fighting was more inside giving Geale an
advantage until Barker landed several left uppercuts.
In the fifth Geale worked Barker over
inside having Barker trying to cover up to no avail. Seemed Barker
forgot his jab. In the sixth Geale dropped Barker with a left hook
on the border-line. Barker got up at 9 and fought his way back
hurting Geale. In the seventh they exchanged right hands. Barker
seemed to eke out the round. In the eighth Geale would get the better
of Barker who was warned by referee Cotton for leaning on Geale.
Geale in return got Barker into four headlocks without warning.
The tenth started to show the ware and
tare on both until Barker landed a lead left uppercut and followed up
with a barrage of punches. In the eleventh Barker landed a 3 punch
combo and Geale returned his own 3 punch combo as Barker’s left eye
was bleeding from the outside down the side of his face. Barker in a
close round.
In the twelfth and final round it was a
shoot out with Geale hurting Barker to the mid-section. Barker
fought back gallantly in the best round of the fight. Judges Alan
Rubenstein had it 114-113 for Geale while Carlos Ortiz had the same
score for Barker as did DHB. The third judge Barbara Perez had it
116-111 for Barker by split decision for the win.
“It wasn’t my best performance
though I thought I won the fight and want a rematch,” said Geale.
“I take my hat off to him. He’s a tough man. During the
knockdown I thought in my head about my wife, family and daughter.
During the fight I started loading up and he hit me for the
knockdown. If I stuck to my game plan and boxed I would have won
easily,” said Barker.
In the co-feature IBF super
bantamweight champion Jhonatan Romero, 29-1 (12), of COL, and Kiko
Martinez, 30-4 (21), of SP, finally gave the fans something to cheer
about as Martinez upset Romero at 2:40 of the sixth round to take the
title.
Martinez came out driving Romero into
the ropes landing punch after punch with the champion trying to use
his jab. In the second round Romero got on his bicycle in order to
stay a jab away from the oncoming Martinez and countered him well
enough to win the round. In the third Martinez was able to get
through some of the countering of Romero but not enough to take the
round.
In the fourth round Martinez landed a
hard right uppercut knocking the head of Romero that had Romero on
the run. Martinez took over like he did in the first round causing a
cut along the left eye brow of Romero. An overhand right halfway
through the fifth rattled Romero who was on the defense trying to
counter with right uppercuts but the stronger Martinez would continue
coming forward landing mostly to the body to take the round.
In the sixth Romero did well until
halfway through when it started with a left hook by Martinez who
continued to hammer Romero from ring post to post. The cut re-opened
as Martinez walked down the champion into a neutral corner landing
punch after punch as referee David Fields had a watchful eye on the
action finally stopping it at 2:40 of the sixth. The trainer of
Martinez, Sarmiento jumped into the ring grabbing his new champion
who was on his knees in victory. Sarmiento also trains Sergio
Martinez.
Jonathan Maicelo, 20-1 (12), of PER
stopped Jose Alejandro Rodriguez, 19-12 (11), MEX, at 0:22 of the
10th and final round in the lightweight division. “Maicelo
picked up the action in the second. Rodriguez showing little ability
on offense with Maicelo landing what gets landed thru 5 rounds of
lack of action. They don’t need a punch counter for this one. The
seventh round saw the most action up until this point. In the 8th Maicelo landed several effective left hooks.
In the 10th and final round
Maicelo landed a right to the head dropping Rodriguez to his knees
where he took the count from referee Alan Higgins. Let’s hope we
don’t see Rodriguez back here again.
Thomas Dulorme, 19-1 (14), of PR,
stopped southpaw Frankie Figueroa, 20-5-1 (15), of NY, at 0:47 of the
8th round. In the 3rd Dulorme landed a right
as Figueroa was backing up landing on the canvas with a hand causing
a knockdown per referee Rick Vera. In the 5th a left hook
dropped Figueroa who was up before the count. Dulorme landed a
border-line low blow finally causing referee Vera to take away a
point. It was at least the 4th time Dulorme landed a low
blow. Finally in the 8th of Figueroa looking like he
didn’t want to be in the fight since the beginning was taking “too
much” punishment from Dulorme as referee Vera relieved all in
attendance.
Cuban Olympian Yordenys Ugas, 15-1 (7),
of Miami, FL, continued taking on ordinary fighters unlike most Cuban
Olympians defeating his opponent John Williams 11-3-1 (5) of NC, for
the WBC Latin Junior Interim junior welter title over 10 rounds
though Ugas came in at 141 ½. Williams tried his best throughout
but was outfought all the way. Each round was similar to the one
before. Referee Randy Neumann took away a point from Ugas in the
10th and final round. Judges Lynne Carter and John
Stewart had it 98-91 while Lawrence Layton had it 99-90 all for Ugas.
Australia’s Joel Brunker, 26-0 (15),
defeated southpaw Mike “Machine Gun” Oliver, 25-5 (8), of
Hartford, CT, over 8 rounds in the featherweight division. Oliver
fought off the ropes through the entire fight as he and Brunker mixed
it up. Whenever they got into the middle of the ring Brunker would
tie Oliver up. In the 6th Brunker received a nasty cut
outside his left eye do to an accidental head butt. Referee was
Huggins who did little to separate the fighters throughout. All 3
judges Hilton Whitaker, Kason Cheeks and Tony Perez had it 78-74 for
Brunker. The fight seemed closer than the scoring.
