FORMER IBF middleweight champion Darren Barker – who won the crown from Daniel Geale in memorable fashion – has written his autobiography, along with sports writer Ian Ridley. A Dazzling Darkness is out now and we interviewed the ex-fighter about that, the tragic loss of his brother Gary and much more.

What kind of things do you reveal that people won’t know?
There’s a lot about the Felix Sturm fight [l rsf 2 – December 2013, his final outing], no excuses, but a lot to get off my chest. What I’ve been doing from then up until now. And I’m not proud of everything but I don’t think people knew how bad Gary’s loss was to me, it was a real dark period and I’m the sort of person who keeps a lot of things bottled up. I saw Bruce [his therapist] twice a week for two-three years and they were quite intense sessions. A lot of fans wouldn’t associate a boxer doing that. Bruce is always here for me now, so he’s not out of the picture.

For the rest of this revealing interview – including what Barker views as his career highlight and what he’s up to now – download the new Boxing News magazine