UPDATE: Barker is British middleweight champ

Barnet's Darren Barker (pictured) topped the bill in Brentwood on Saturday night in a comfortable seventh round victory over young Bristolian Danny Butler who stepped in at the last minute as a late replacement for Wayne Elcock (picking up £12,000 for a tough night's work). Fight fans watching live on ITV4 were denied an intriguing fight between unbeaten Barker - a former Commonwealth Games gold medalist - and Birmingham's Elcock. In the end, Barker looked composed and classy and controlled the fight from start to finish. Butler's brave effort ended in the seventh round and Barker improved his record to 21-0 taking the vacant British middleweight title in the process (a belt once held by the likes of Alan Minter and Randy Turpin).

The pick of the undercard was local Finsbury Park favourite Yassine El- Maachi who toyed with his opponent - the Latvian bulldog Spitko - for a couple of rounds before finishing him off in style in the third. El Maachi, who lived up to his nickname 'the showman', delighted his traveling support and helped celebrate Eid ("We killed a sheep", he told Jim Rosenthal after the fight) with a thoroughly entertaining, if a little unorthodox, demolition job.
El Maachi looked in great shape and is a likable guy (Barry McGuigan is a fan) but complained after the contest that he can't get anyone to fight him. He's only just taken on a trainer and he doesn't have a manager or a promoter but with a few more fights like this one on the telly someone's bound to give him the chance he deserves. A right-handed south paw, he's in possession of a ferocious, whipping left hook which did for Spitko on Saturday. Modeling himself on Prince Naseem, he keeps his hands low and likes to showboat, he's built up a small but dedicated following (me included) but at 30 he needs to start getting the big fights if he's ever going to get a shot at a European title. Watch this space.

Boxing's life blood

From the glitz and glamour of the MGM Grand Las Vegas to Brentwood Leisure Centre on Saturday night. Yes, I think it's high time I came down to earth after the Pacquiao fight and showcased a local fighter. I've just been down to get a haircut on Blackstock Road, Finsbury Park, home to a large north African community, and there are posters everywhere advertising local lad Yassine El Maachi's upcoming fight with Alex Spitko on Saturday night. El Maachi - from Finsbury Park via Morocco - is fighting on the undercard of the British Middleweight title bout between 'Dazzling' Darren Barker of Barnet and Wayne 'Mad Dog' Elcock of Birmingham. The fight and the undercard will be shown live on ITV4 or you can still buy tickets for the fight here.
Yassine 'The Showman' El Maachi's professional record of 10 wins and four defeats at Light Middleweight is hardly going to set the world alight, but he has won six on the trot and looked impressive last time out on the way to a third round victory over Drew Campbell. He's already beaten Latvian-born Sptiko (pictured above), so I'm not quite sure what he's got to gain from fighting him again, apart from the wider exposure he'll get from a televised fight. There's a nice little profile of the former Moroccan amateur champion here.
It's fight nights like these, featuring decent and up-and-coming British fighters, that are the life blood of boxing in this country and it is greatly to ITV's credit that they've managed to fit fights like these into the schedule (even if it's on a freeview channel few people watch). But at least the option is there for those of you who don't fancy a trip to Essex of a Saturday night.

Who's the greatest of them all?

Boxing is back, according to the New York Times and everyone is getting carried away in the aftermath of the Pacquiao/Cotto fight at the weekend. Pick of the bunch, in my opinion, is Sports Illustrated's run-down of the greatest fighters, and fights, of all-time.
They've picked Roberto Duran (pictured) as the best lightweight ever (no arguments there), Harry Greb as best middleweight (no he wasn't that familiar to me either), Ali gets the nod at heavyweight and Sugar Ray Robinson is named the best pound-for-pound fighter - again I've got no arguments with that.
Even more interesting is the top ten list of great fights. Only three of the fights happened during my lifetime (although I was born just five days after Sugar Ray Leonard and Tommy Hearns' 1981 meeting) and I only remember watching one of them - the astonishing 2005 clash between Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo which sneaks in at number ten. According to SI the best fight ever was Jack Dempsey's 1923 defeat of Luis Angel Firpo despite the fact that the fight lasted less than two rounds (there were 11 knockdowns).
Interesting stuff and I'm sure you'll disagree with some of the selections... You can have your say here.

Do you have to box to write about boxing?

Unlike most football writers who will have enjoyed, at the very least, the odd kickabout in the park, I doubt you could name more than a handful of boxing writers who have ever stepped into the ring. But does it matter? Well, from my experience of playing and watching football, I would say that it does. It's very easy to be an armchair fan, to wonder how it's possible that a team who have spent the entire week on the training ground can still concede a goal from a set piece on Saturday. But that doesn't take into account the tired legs of a full-back who has been run ragged for 90 minutes only to lose concentration for a mere fraction of a second when it really counts. If you've ever played football you'll know the feeling; sometimes your legs won't do what you want them to.
So it is with boxing. It's all very well shouting at the TV: "Just hit him, he's right in front of you!" But arms (and legs) can feel like lead after just a few three minute rounds (try shadow boxing for three minutes straight). This is where I have to confess that I myself have never laced-up and jumped the ropes of a real boxing ring. The intention has always been there, I've just never got round to it. But I will one day. In the meantime, having recently joined the gym at Hackney's Clissold Park Leisure Centre (pictured), I thought I'd go along to their Boxfit class last night.
A few light stretches and sprints at the beginning didn't prepare me for what was to come. I pulled on the gloves and did some intensive pad work with my partner, left hook, straight right, left hook, straight right before sprinting round the 'ring' to the next person, upper cut, jab, upper cut, jab, and so on for 20 gruelling minutes.
I gave it my all and was positively gasping by the end of it. But just when I thought we might start warming down, he had us on our backs, (gloved up again) doing sit-up punch combos, one-two, one-two, one-two, gradually increasing the number of punches until we got up to 20, shouting out the numbers as we hit the pads, one-two-three.....
I'm not afraid to admit that I came close to throwing up at the end. It was punishing.
Walking home afterwards, I thought about the training regime of the average pro fighter. Road work at 6am, heavy bags, pads, sparring etc. I don't think people appreciate just how tough it is. The rewards, for a few, may be great, but in my humble opinion, they deserve it. The training is bad enough but once you step into the ring at the end of it all, someone's trying to take your head off with swinging rights and lefts and brutal shots to the body that leave you pissing blood for a week after it's over. No one said the fight game was easy but I think there are a few boxing writers who could benefit from a good pummeling every now and then.

The whole world wants to see Pacquiao v Mayweather

After Pacquiao's stunning victory over Cotto at the weekend, thoughts inevitably turn to the one fight every fan wants - and as the excellent Kevin Mitchell argues here deserves - to see.
He also airs an interesting take on the Haye fight courtesy of fight-write legend Hugh Mcllvanney - author of Mcllvanney on Boxing which I would highly recommend.
There's a lot of work to be done before a Mayweather v Pacquiao fight becomes a reality but that's not going to stop litres of ink being devoted to the subject over the next few months. I am already tingling with excitement at the prospect. It would be the defining fight of this generation.

Pacquiao wins it in, yes you guessed it, the twelfth round!

Not much time to blog right now but just got to put something up about Manny Pacquiao's victory last night over Miguel Cotto. It makes the Pac-man the first man in history to win world titles in seven different weight divisions - the latest being Cotto's WBO welterweight title. Astonishing stuff and his status as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world is now assured, along with his place in the history books. I haven't actually seen the fight yet but I'm hoping to catch it on YouTube later today. More to follow.

All hail the new champion of the world

So Britain has a new heavyweight champion of the world: David Haye. In what was by no means a classic encounter, he succeeded in outpointing the defending WBA champion, Nikolai Valuev, on Saturday night. But despite what some commentators are saying, it was never a sure thing and I could see the uncertainty written all over Haye's face as he waited for the judges' verdict. The Sky Sports commentary team certainly doubted whether Haye had done enough, especially given the fact that Valuev has been the beneficiary of some dubious decisions in the past, particularly fighting on what was in essence home turf.
But as someone said in the aftermath of the fight, if you only land two or three punches a round and your opponent lands none at all, you still win. That was pretty much the way it went for the majority of the fight, with the notable exception of the final round. Valuev may as well have been shadow boxing and Haye got in a few punches in the early rounds which would surely have floored a smaller man.
But it turns out that the single biggest factor affecting the quality of the fight was not revealed until after it finished. Haye says he broke his hand early on. That would certainly explain why he held back on those famous Hayemakers until the twelfth round. It also makes his achievement all the more remarkable and reminds me of Joe Calzaghe's victory over Evans Ashira in 2005 when he took a points decision despite fighting with a broken left (leading) hand from the third round onwards.

Haye's victory is all very exciting, particularly the prospect of a first title defence in London next year against former champ John Ruiz. Ruiz is a tailor-made opponent for Haye and should give him the chance to show more of his skills and impress the all-important US audience. Then it's the brothers Klitschko.

Exciting stuff, but a word of caution from the always excellent Gareth Davies.