By Terence Dooley
Matthew Macklin’s decision to fly out to Freddie Roach’s LA-based Wildcard Gym ahead of his September 18th make-or-break showdown with British and European middleweight boss Darren Barker at the LG Arena, Birmingham has generated a ripple of online criticism. The Brummie, 26-2 (18), has done his preparatory work at Gallagher’s Gym in Denton but feels that he needs to travel to LA to get the level of sparring needed for the double-title duel.
Macklin, however, shrugged off concerns over his training situation before outlining the reasoning behind his recent decisions. “It is all down to sparring, really, you know what I mean?” declared the 28-year-old when revealing the thinking behind his initial decision to part company with Joe Gallagher in order to hook up with Roach back in January.
“The sparring for the British fight against [Wayne] Elcock [RSF 3] and the European against [Amin] Asikainen [RSF 1] was a step up from what I’d had the year before that, but I needed that step up again into world class. I watched [Kelly] Pavlik fight [Miguel Angel Espino] in Ohio and had a chat with Bob Arum who said there was a realistic chance of me getting the Pavlik fight in March or April so I needed world class sparring.
“The lads we were bringing over from Europe for Asikainen and Elcock were coming to the end of their careers, they weren’t in the best of shape and were only lasting about four rounds, they are experienced and tough but you’re carrying them after four rounds, and you don’t need that, you are missing the intensity that you need when you’re stepping up the levels.”
The former British and European title-holder suffered a broken nose when preparing for an aborted EBU defence against Armenia’s Khoren Gover back in April, the fight was scrapped as a result of the injury, leaving Matthew with no choice but to quit the title, clearing the way for Barker to win the vacant title on points against France’s Affif Belghecham in April.
“I broke my nose in sparring, yeah!” laughed Macklin when recalling those feral Wildcard sparring sessions. “I was doing four and eight round spars immediately and getting a lot more sparring over there. I was surprised by how quickly I was getting through the rounds. I would do the pads with Freddie and was straight in for four, five and six rounders, then onto eight and ten rounders, fighting one lad and then another.
“That kind of baptism of fire can make or break you but if you’re a fighter you’ve got to be tough and that was certainly bringing the best out in me. It is a shame the injury happened when it did.”
“I honestly don’t recall who it was,” he said when asked to name the fighter who had broken his nose, “I must have sparred ten lads over there, the only one I knew was Kingsley Ikeke. They are all good fighters.”
Ah, Ikeke, isn’t it, the one-time 160lb contender and, recently, NABA 168lb title winner looked set for big things, and a possible showdown with Jermain Taylor, before he lost an IBF middleweight title tilt to Arthur Abraham in 2005; the Los Angeles-based Nigerian, 27-3 (14), proved a good foil for ‘Mack the Knife’.
He said: “He’s awkward, a 6’ 4’’ boxer who is very strong. Freddie wanted me to spar Manny [Pacquiao] but when I got over there I was too heavy to spar him, he was tailing off just as I was getting ready. There is a good chance I’ll spar him for the [Antonio] Margarito fight.”
Macklin chose to recuperate here in the UK after fights against Winky Wright and Sergio Mora failed to materialise; the EBU installed him as #1 contender for Barker’s newly-minted crown; consequently the 2001 ABA welterweight champion decided to do his early work here in the UK, with this decision made the next logical move was to reunite with Joe Gallagher before jetting to LA.
“Last year I was in the best shape of my life. Joe was getting me levels of fitness that I didn’t think were possible. I was thinking, ‘You can’t spar ten rounds and then do a session on the track’, but I did, and I flew through. Different things like that get you into great shape but you need the sparring. I can get my condition and fitness over here but the sparring is what I need,” mused Macklin.
“Of course,” he said when asked if he has the best of both worlds. “Freddie can pick up on little technical and tactical things, the great thing about Freddie is that he is very knowledgeable and has great variety in his gym. The split side, and this is always going to be possible, is that he trains Manny, he trains Amir Khan and he trains other guys for one-off fights. Fights will clash and Manny has a big fight coming up against Antonio Margarito. Freddie’ll need to go and prepare Manny in the Philippines so Freddie could be going over there.
“Freddie might not be in the corner on the night, at first he said ‘No problem’ and put it in the diary but it is now fifty-fifty. I’m very comfortable with Joe, I’ve done a month here and will do a month over there and Joe is coming out with me for two weeks. I’ll come back two-weeks before the fight and will have had the best of both worlds.”
He added: “Joe is very meticulous himself and understands how big this fight is. His training, homework and preparation are spot-on and he’s already got me in good shape fitness-wise. I’ll only have two-weeks over there without Joe, if Freddie does come over here with me then they’ll be able to share the corner. If not then I’m more than happy for Joe to work the corner. In an ideal world I’d have both Joe and Freddie onboard for the full ten-weeks.”
Still, there are those who claim that coming home as challenger for the Barker fight was the last thing on Macklin’s mind when he vacated the title back in March, he has made no secret of his world-level pretensions and had hoped to secure a big-name fight over in the USA.
“I don’t know,” he said when asked why a US showcase has been so hard to come by, “I parted with [former promoter] Ricky [Hatton] by buying out my contract to look at options in America. I then had a three-fight deal on the table from Golden Boy starting with Winky Wright on the 31st, last Saturday night, only for Winky to pull out before we could get the contracts signed, then he came back into things and pulled out again.
“Then I had a possible Golden Boy deal that was set to start with Sergio Mora and he flat out refused to fight me. They tried to make me and [Daniel] Jacobs for the WBO but Pirog was ranked above me and that one fell through. There was talk of a final eliminator against [the Dominican Republic’s] Giovanni Lorenzo [who takes on Felix Sturm for WBA belt on September 4th] but the EBU thing came up so I put that to one side to take on Barker instead. I had a meeting with Frank before he won the purse bid but for this fight but I’m currently not signed with anyone.”
Warren recently declared that he is tired of watching British fighters move to America in order to pursue their dream fights, the veteran promoter believes that he can provide big nights here in the UK and points to Kevin Mitchell’s WBO interim lightweight title tilt against Michael Katsidis at Upton Park in May as proof of this, not to mention Amir Khan’s WBA win over Andrey Kotelnik at the MEN in Manchester last year and Ricky Hatton’s 2005 triumph over Kostya Tszyu at the same venue. Macklin, as ever, is keeping an open-mind when it comes to his next promotional deal.
“Frank’s a really good promoter,” stressed Macklin. “Look at all the publicity they’ve done on this fight already. I’ve already had four press conferences and they’ve got press releases going out every week. Once Frank’s behind you there’s no better man to have on your side.
“I’ve signed with him a couple of times and felt that he perhaps didn’t get behind me, he might have felt that previously there were circumstances with Billy Graham that prevented us from working together, you’d have to ask him, so, for whatever reason, it didn’t quite work out the other two times. On a personal level we get on really well, I like Frank and really respect him.
“If I dismantle Barker in the way I know I can do then maybe there’ll be a new star on the horizon and Frank can get me something big here at home. It would make sense wouldn’t it? Frank can put big events on in Birmingham and there is no one better to elevate me from someone that is respected within the trade to a marquee attraction for all sport fans to see. My job is to fight, a promoter’s job is to promote, and no one does it better than Frank Warren. But I don’t want to get too caught up in that – we’ll see what happens next.”
He continued: “I’ve gone past the six and eight round level so there is no build up process needed with me. In regards to America you need that one big name fighter, someone like Wright or Mora. Pavlik moving up changed the landscape and you now have [WBC ‘silver’ titleist Julio Caesar] Chavez Junior coming through, but Kelly is back down now and something could still happen against him. A win against one of those names is the sort of thing that helps you crack America.
“You don’t mean anything over there until you beat a named fighter on a US big network. This fight over here – fighting for Frank on a big show in Birmingham – means a lot domestically and in Europe and is more than enough for me. I don’t want to get too sidetracked by all that other stuff – I’m just thinking about fighting Darren Barker. I’ll win this fight and my manager [Brian Peters] will have the job of worrying about what is next.”
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