Barker blasts his eliminator tag

DARREN BARKER S Commonwealth title fight with Darren McDermott at Watford on May 23 has also been labelled a final eliminator for the British title held by Matthew Macklin - and Barker admits he is not happy about it. It s a liberty asking me to fight an

DARREN BARKER'S Commonwealth title fight with Darren McDermott at Watford on May 23 has also been labelled a final eliminator for the British title held by Matthew Macklin - and Barker admits he is not happy about it.

"It's a liberty asking me to fight an eliminator for the title - I should have been made the official challenger in a fight with Macklin with British and Commonwealth titles at stake," slammed Barker.

However the 26-year-old former Repton amateur accepts the two-step route to the title, with the target of ending the year as the British and Commonwealth champion.

"I must admit becoming British champion has been a dream since I first started boxing," said Barker whose six-year pro career has seen him stay unbeaten with 19 straight victories.

His regular promoter Mick Hennessy has won the purse bids for the eliminator and takes bright prospect Barker to new territory for the show at the Watford Colliseum.

It's the fourth venue in as many defences for the champion, who in his first defence defeated Midlander Steve Bendall at York Hall, Bethnal Green, and then crossed the Atlantic to fight in Alberta, Canada to take a unanimous decision over Larry Sharpe.

His third defence was at Brentwood last December when his accurate attacks forced Irish challenger Jason McKay to retire in the sixth.

Steve Bendall was also a victim of McDermott when they clashed for the English middleweight title, but Barker claimed a seventh-round stoppage win over the Coventry fighter who went the full distance with McDermott.

He aims to continue his winning ways in the final eliminator: "I am focused on taking the British title before the end of the year and then going on to bigger things," concluded Barker.