http://www.boxingnewsonline.net JUNE 27, 2019 lBOXING NEWSl 25
believed I could win the fight.”
Regrettably, Barker didn’t come close. Injured
“three or four weeks” beforehand, the champion’s
faulty hip then betrayed him in round one, leaving
him a sitting duck for Sturm’s punches. The pain of
the result, a second-round stoppage, was soothed
only by its inevitability.
“When my hip went in sparring, I tried to disguise
it from Tony Sims, my trainer,” Barker recalled. “We
had a very simple game plan and I wasn’t practicing
it. Tony pulled me to one side and said, ‘What on
earth are you doing?’ I told him I hurt my hip but
thought I’d be all right.
“As the fight got closer it felt like it had healed up
properly. I then got caught and what happened in
sparring happened in the first round of the fight.
But this is boxing, the hurt sport. Your job is to hurt
the opponent. Ask boxers if they go into fights 100
per cent and not many will say they do.”
Barker, 31 at the time, concedes that if the
money he received for fighting Sturm had been
on offer when winning the title against Australian
Daniel Geale, he would have retired there and
then, without making a single defence. He predicts
it would have taken him three or four fights to
accumulate the same amount and calls the Sturm
payday “life-changing”.
After the loss, he had no doubts. The pain in
his hip was the deciding factor but his mind, too,
sullied by wear and tear of its own, was in no fit
state to argue.
“It was a nice moment,” Barker said. “I was lying
down in the changing room as the doctor assessed
me and I said to my dad and my trainer, Tony, two
very important people, ‘That’s it.’
“We all had a hug and it felt like I had completed
boxing. There were no hard feelings or regrets. My
dad and Tony were just happy I got out with my
faculties intact. I had achieved everything I wanted
to achieve.
“Before I won the world title, I was the hungriest
man in the world, whereas after achieving my goal,
I was a little bit deflated and content. And being
content as a boxer is dangerous.
“If I had beaten Sturm, I would have retired
anyway because I would have had enough moneyto jack it in. It would have been a fairytale ending to
a good career, but I still think you’ll struggle to find
a more content retired fighter than me.”
Richie Woodhall, a former WBC super-
middleweight champion, had his changing room
goodbye in December 2000, following a 10th-round
stoppage defeat at the hands of Joe Calzaghe. That
night it was left to the 32-year-old’s father and
trainer, Len, to vocalise what he already suspected.
“It’s over,” he said, holding the hurting hands of
his son and looking him in the eye. “You’re finished,
son.”
Richie could breathe again. He nodded his head.
“Yeah, Dad. You’re right.”
“My dad later explained that he didn’t see the
fight in me that night against Calzaghe,” said
Woodhall. “He detected there was something
missing and I understood what he meant. Mentally,
more than physically, I’d come to the end. I didn’t
try to argue.
“My brother, though, was in earshot and I
remember him b*****king my dad a bit. He said,
‘Hey, don’t say that. Let the dust settle and see
what he thinks.’ In a way, he was right, it was very
immediate. But it was the correct decision.”
Even so, Woodhall eventually wavered and
reneged on it when a WBU title shot against Toks
Owoh was later pushed his way by promoter Frank
Warren. The meaningless title was of no interest
but the fight itself was one Woodhall fancied. ➤THE PAIN:
Barker
realises his
career is over
against SturmGAME’S UP:
Woodhall
hangs his head
after losing
his last bout
to friend and
rival, Calzaghe