(Interview by Declan Warrington)
BN: How is life in retirement?
DB: I smiled as you asked me that question – I’m living the dream. It’s a weird feeling, contentment. I’d been driving my whole life; chasing a goal; a dream, and then it stopped. A few years back I started thinking, “Now what?” But that’s all fallen into place nicely – somehow I landed a commentary gig, which was never a plan. I didn’t have aspirations of being in the media, and here I am commentating for DAZN. I pinch myself – I said it to Barry [Jones] during the Anthony Joshua card last summer. “How mad’s this? What a great gig we’ve got.”
Boxing – fantastic, as far as everything I was able to achieve. My career now – fantastic, doing a job I never thought I would, and I like to think I’m doing okay. My family life – fantastic. I’m married [to Beth]; I’ve got four kids [Scarlett-Rose, Charlotte, Poppy and Joe, named after Joe Calzaghe]. I try to set goals but I’m very happy.
BN: Injuries undermined the latter years of your career. How comfortable are you, physically?
DB: I’m sure I’ve smashed my body to pieces, but was it worth it? Of course it was. I’m managing it daily. I’ve started stretching a fair bit in the morning; I avoid certain things. I’d like to play more football. My back tightens up; my hips hurt. I can’t run any real distance or with any real intensity. I’m getting a bit frustrated – I was never really able to lift any weights, boxing – I find it enjoyable when I go to the gym but now my shoulder’s really hurting so I’m having to stop that. It’s annoying, but a sacrifice worth making.
BN: Did you earn enough as a fighter to retire when injuries forced you to?
DB: Yeah, I’m in a good position. I got $400,000 for [Sergio] Martinez, which bought my house; I got $150,000 against [Daniel] Geale, and it was €1.2m to fight [Felix] Sturm in Germany. I opened a gym – 12x3s Gym in Aldgate. I’m alright – don’t get me wrong, I wish I was £1 behind Eddie Hearn. I’m alright though. I don’t want for much – as long as my kids are alright.
BN: Do you have any regrets?
DB: Yeah. Two in the amateurs. In the world championships in 2003 in Thailand, I boxed Andre Berto in the quarter-finals and I was seven points up; I lost by two points. I’ve watched that fight back a million times – I didn’t lose. That would have been for a bronze medal. The second one is I can never call myself an Olympian. The weights got rejigged; I’d outgrown welterweight and was too small for middleweight. I went to every major tournament in the amateurs, bar the Olympics [in Athens in 2004]. They don’t eat away at me, but I wish I could have said I was an Olympian. It’s a real special thing.
I don’t have regrets about [getting injured against] Sturm. My body had been knackered for the best part of 10 years. I was content; I needed the money. I thought I had enough to beat Sturm – I thought I’d be too busy, but my body gave up. My hip actually came out of its socket – it’d never done that before. It was a freak injury. I got back to my feet, and Tony [Sims, my trainer] threw the towel in – rightly so – and I was still throwing shots. I was in agony, so weirdly I was beaming with pride.
BN: How much of a frustration is it that you, Matthew Macklin, Martin Murray and Andy Lee never fought?
DB: Sometimes the stars have got to align, and everything’s got to work. We were slated to fight twice, me and Macklin, and one apiece we had to pull out. Would I have liked those domestic dust-ups? Yes, of course I would. Am I gutted – do I have regrets that I never? No, I don’t. My career was better than I could ever have dreamed of.
BN: Which of them was the best?
DB: The biggest rival out of them was Macklin. But the best out of them, probably Andy Lee – we’re really good friends now. We reminisce all the time at shows, sat at the commentary desks – it’s brilliant. Two boys from Repton [ABC].
I genuinely believe I was the best out of all of them and I’d be very, very sure that they’d all say the same [about themselves]. Macklin – the most aggressive out of everyone. Can really, really punch. Martin Murray, the most physically strong; had a very good defence. Andy Lee, huge puncher; very awkward. I had a really good boxing brain; a fair whack on me; probably the quicker hands out of everyone.
BN: Who was the best you fought?
DB: Sergio Martinez [in 2011]. Very skilled. Very tricky, and very experienced. I learned a lot from fighting him, not just in the ring but out of the ring. The experience I gained really helped me going into the Geale fight. I know I fought well but if I believed in myself a bit more I could have performed better, but I don’t really have a regret over it.
BN: How much do you owe your success to Tony Sims?
DB: He was absolutely instrumental. I respect Tony so much – his knowledge – and he knew how to extract that extra percentage from me. How to turn me from a good fighter into a very good fighter; he didn’t change me too much. I was a very technically sound boxer but I needed to change slightly as a pro and he did it perfectly; his training methods.
I remember Tony telling me that Conor [Benn] was innocent. He said it’d be like me lying to him. I believed him from the off anyway but when he said that – if you’ve got the same sort of relationship that I did with Tony… It could have been very easy for Tony and Eddie [Hearn] to shy away from the Conor Benn situation but they never. They had his back and they believed in their man, and that’s what you want from your team. You want people who have got your back. Eddie’s very much in the limelight and he could have made life easy for himself and distanced himself from Conor, but he didn’t, and nor did Tony. They believed in their man, and that showed how loyal they are and how much they’ve got your back.
BN: How much does being a commentator fill the void your fighting career could have left?
DB: Massively. Massively. Massively. I’ve never had any desire [to return] – there’s never been an itch. I’ll always miss winning – don’t get me wrong – I’ll always miss my arm being raised. It’s the most addictive; most beautiful, wonderful feeling in the world. Or, it was back then. I’m so naturally competitive nothing will fill that void. But, being content and being able to be sat ringside, calling fights in my own way – I know I’m not the most articulate man in the world, but my passion for the sport can’t be bettered – I’m living the dream. It’s hard – I’m away an awful lot – but I’d do this week in, week out. If there was a show every week it wouldn’t be enough for me. Just keep ‘em coming. Get me sat behind that mic calling fights. It really is a dream job.
BN: What’s been your highlight so far?
DB: [Pauses]. I’m going to say [Oleksandr] Usyk-AJ at White Hart Lane, and the reason I say that is I was commentating alongside Roy Jones Jnr. Somebody who commentated on my fight [with Geale]. He was one of my favourite fighters of all time, and I’m commentating alongside him. He’s saying my name as we’re commentating. I still think it’s mental. I bumped into him in Dallas. “Hey, Darren Barker, how you doing?” I think it’s mad that he knows my name. For him to be sat ringside at a packed-out football stadium watching Anthony Joshua take on Oleksandr Usyk – one of the greats also – commentating with Roy Jones. That was a real box ticked – and it was a box that didn’t even exist. It was a box I’ve had made and it’s got a big gold tick in it.
BN: How much do you still think about your brother Gary?
DB: Every day. He’s the screensaver on my phone. I think about him all the time. I often say a little prayer in my head, or out loud. “Love you, Gal; love you, Grandad”. Always. Always. All the time. He’ll never be forgotten. Never, never be forgotten. Everyone who knows us as a family unit knows how close we all are. We’re all about our family – so close. So, so close. So, to lose my grandad and my brother was so devastating, but we think about them all the time. I’m always saying, “I love you, Gal; I love you, Grandad; blah, blah, blah”. So, every single day.
BN: How much does your sense of spirituality still bring you peace?
DB: I was brought into a religious family – we’re Christians. Not your typical, go-to-church Christians, but there’s a real belief and faith there that’s helped us all when my brother [Gary] died. I’ve always been spiritual; I’ve always been aware of certain emotions, etc – more so now, as I get older. I’ve booked twice to go to Portugal to do an ayahuasca ceremony [ayahuasca is a hallucinogenic drink prepared from the bark of ayahuasca], but I’ve bottled it. I will do it at some point, but I’m always looking into the way I’m feeling and others are feeling. I find it fascinating. “Where does that emotion love come from? What is hate – where does this come from?” I’m always delving in and out and thinking about those sort of things, on a daily basis.
It’s funny the way the world works sometimes. The stars align; things are supposed to happen. There’s certain things I believe happen and don’t happen. I don’t believe what goes around comes around – I don’t believe in that – but sometimes you’re drawn to certain people. You can call it coincidence if you want – I think there’s something a bit deeper. That magnet, being drawn to somebody. I’m a big over-thinker, and it can be a nightmare sometimes, but it also uncovers quite a lot as well.
Me and Tony have been to church together, and had some fascinating experiences going to Canada and America. I saw a therapist after my brother died, ‘cause I needed some help dealing with grief, and Tony was instrumental in me going to see this bloke, Bruce Lloyd, along with Tony’s friend, and he played a big part in my life. He always referred to grief as, “A wound that needs clearing out but the clearing out process is very painful”. He got me on a spiritual journey as well – I remember reading a very poignant book called The Power of Now. About staying present and not worrying too much about the future or the past. It’s a very, very hard task to master – I don’t think you ever do master it – but if you can stay present life becomes a lot more enjoyable. It really does. You do need things to look forward to, and you need to look back on memories with fond thoughts, but every second that passes is a memory, so makes those memories good, and you do that by staying present and in the moment. Me and Tony had a lot of in-depth conversations, and a lot of things in common when it comes to religion and spirituality.
