Sergio Martínez vs. Darren Barker

Sergio Martínez vs. Darren Barker, billed as No Fear. No Mercy., was a professional boxing match contested on October 1, 2011, for The Ring middleweight championship.^[1]

DateOctober 1, 2011

VenueBoardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, New Jersey, US

Title(s) on the lineThe Ring middleweight championship

Boxer

Sergio Martínez

Quick facts Date, Venue ...

No Fear. No Mercy.

Date

October 1, 2011

Venue

Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, New Jersey, US

Title(s) on the line

The Ring middleweight championship

Tale of the tape

Boxer	Sergio Martínez	Darren Barker
Nickname	"Maravilla"	"Dazzling"
Hometown	Quilmes, Buenos Aires, Argentina	Barnet, London, UK
Purse	$1,500,000	$400,000
Pre-fight record	47–2–2 (26 KO)	23–0 (14 KO)
Age	36 years, 7 months	29 years, 4 months
Height	5 ft 10 in (178 cm)	6 ft 0 in (183 cm)
Weight	158 lb (72 kg)	159+1⁄2 lb (72 kg)
Style	Southpaw	Orthodox
Recognition	The Ring Middleweight Champion IBF No. 3 Ranked Middleweight The Ring No. 3 ranked pound-for-pound fighter 2-division world champion	IBF No. 2 Ranked Middleweight WBC No. 3 Ranked Middleweight WBO No. 6 Ranked Middleweight EBU (European) Middleweight Champion

Result

Martínez defeated Barker via 11th Round Knockout

Close

Background

Barker, the European champion, was certainly not the first choice for Martínez, various other potential opponents turned down overtures for a bout against him. Promoter Lou DiBella offered the fight with Martínez to titleholders Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Daniel Geale as well as junior middleweight titlist Miguel Cotto and Paul Williams, for a rubber match.^[2] Martínez said he was willing to face Cotto at middleweight or drop down to junior middleweight to fight him, but Cotto continued to ignore the fight.^[3]

Martínez

Martínez won two world titles in April 2010 with a unanimous decision over Kelly Pavlik.^[4] Martínez made his first defense in spectacular fashion on Paul Williams by knocking him unconscious with one punch.^[5] In his second defense, Martínez laid a beating on junior middleweight titlist Sergiy Dzinziruk, HBO's preferred opponent who moved up in weight for the opportunity. Martínez dropped him five times en route to a lopsided eighth-round knockout on March 12.^[6] And because Martínez faced Dzinziruk instead of mandatory challenger Sebastian Zbik (whom HBO rejected for Martínez but accepted for Chavez), the WBC stripped Martínez and elevated Zbik to its titleholder. Zbik then lost the belt to Chavez on June 4 by majority decision.^[7]

Barker

Barker won the vacant EBU middleweight title with a unanimous decision win over France's Affif Belghecham on April 9, 2010.^[8] However, he was then the victim of a cowardly street attack in June 2010 after he tried to prevent a scuffle. This event, coupled with a chronic hip-problem, left him inactive for over a year as he recovered from the assault and underwent hip surgery.^[9] Barker returned to ring on April 30, 2011, once again winning the vacant EBU middleweight crown with a hard-fought unanimous decision victory over Italy's Domenico Spada.^[10]

The fight

Martínez defeated Barker via Knockout at 1:29 of the eleventh round. Barker had some success early in the fight, landing some jabs and a few straight rights that made Martínez's nose to bleed in the fourth round. But from the fifth round on, Martínez dominated the fight behind three- and four-punch flurries that left Barker covering up for most of the bout.

Through 10 rounds, judges Lynn Carter (96–94), Victor Loughlin (97–94) and Alejandro Roche (99–91) all had Martínez ahead.