He later went on to become the British, beating Danny Butler for the vacant belt, and European Champion. In 2010 a fight with British Matthew Macklin for the British and European titles, dubbed "The Battle of Britain". Sadly the fight never happened, as the Londoner suffered a reoccurance of the hip injury while sparring, forcing Barker to relinquish his titles.
Barker made his comeback in April 2011, in a fight for the vacant European title Domenico Spada in London, winning a split decision. This fight represented the first fight under Matchroom Sports for him, and he had described the move as "the best thing to do" and said that the move would "benefit my career".
Eddie Hearn and Matchroom repaid the faith shown by Darren, by getting him
Following the loss, Barker spent another 12 months out of the ring due to injuries. After beating Italy’s Simone Rotole on his comeback in March 2013, Barker picked up the IBF Inter-Continental title, thus opening the door to another world title shot, this time against Daniel Geale.
Fans believed that, like in the Martinez fight, the jump from Rotolo to Geale would be too much for Barker, and it looked as if that would be proven right when the champion landed a near perfect body shot in the 6th round which dropped Barker to his knees, and took everything away from him. Incredibly Barker managed to not only rise to his feet, but finished off the round on the front foot.
The fight eventually went to the scorecards, with two judges scoring it for Barker he won a majority decision & with it his first World Title…accomplishing the dream he’d long set out for. He dedicated the win to his late brother Gary.
“I saw my brother: 100 per cent, I could clearly see him....basically it was him saying ‘Get up.’ you know what I mean. ‘Get up. Get up’ He was urging me''
a fight with Argentinian legend Sergio Martinez for the WBC Diamond Middleweight title in Atlantic City, at the time Martinez was ranked third in the "pound for pound" rankings, and was coming in to the fight following wins against Paul Williams, Kelly Pavlik and Sergiy Dzinziruk. Before the fight it was believed that this was a step to far for Darren. The jump to Martinez from his previous opponent was huge, and was always going to be a big ask.
Barker gave a good account of himself, but eventually Martinez landed the perfect shot which perforated the ear drum of the challenger and subsequently sent him to the canvas from which he was unable to recover, this was the first defeat of his career.
A career high pay day saw him decide to venture to Germany in his first title defence to take on Felix Sturm. Whilst many believed the German had seen better days, he rolled back the years, putting Barker down twice in the 2nd round before trainer Tony Sims threw in the towel. It transpired that Barker had reinjured his hip when going down first time thus restricting his movement.
He announced his retirement on the 15th of January 2014. The big question is what Darren Barker does now; he is a man with a fantastic knowledge of this sport and has a number of options available to him. I'm sure Sky would love to his as an analyst on their live shows, just like I am sure that Tony Sims would like to keep around the gym passing on his knowledge and experience to younger fighters. What ever he decides to do now, I wish him all the best for the future
Photo: The Mail On Sunday
Photo: Barnet-today.co.uk