Barnet middleweight Darren Barker will face a test on March 9th at Wembley when he takes on Italian Simone Rotolo 35-3, 15 KO’s for the IBF inter-continetal middleweight title. The 37yo Italian hasn’t lost a fight since 2007 when he lost a split decision to Sebastian Sylvester over 12 rounds for the EBU middleweight title, since then Rotolo has won his last 8 fights and 2 of those have been stoppages. But with Barker looking to get another crack at a version of the world title he needs to move in this type of circles.
“I have watched him,” said the 30 year old. “I suppose there is a sense, a little bit, of unfinished business as well where I had to pull out of the September fight so it will be good to get in there and put this one behind me, put on a good performance and really crack on.
“He is experienced, he has had 30-odd fights, he is in his late 30s so he knows his way around the ring. He will be looking to make things difficult.
“I think he likes to do a lot of his work off the back foot so he is tough and experienced but I have a good bit of momentum behind me at the moment, I am injury free and really looking forward to putting on a good show.
“I am feeling really good, I am in fantastic shape and I had a good training camp out in Spain. I am where I want to be, if not slightly in front.
“[Spain] was a lot of hard work, it was some real graft. We have a fantastic team spirit at our gym, it is almost like a football club if you like, and if anyone has the hump we pull each other through. It was a good camp but tough.”
Daily Sport says – We expect Barket to win this won on route to a world title shot in late 2013 early 2014.