Beaten champion Cardle needs to banish demons
That is little wonder as he had held on to the British lightweight title for the best part of two years and he was one fight away from keeping the coveted belt for all time.
The hurt is still raw and clearly cuts deep after the 12 rounds points loss at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow, his first defeat as a professional.
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Hide AdHe said: “I have been keeping my head down since the fight and I still have some demons inside me.
“It wasn’t a question of underestimating my opponent or anything like that.
“Fair play to Barrett who got his tactics right and I was not prepared for the way he was going to approach the fight.”
It is quite unusual for a boxer to score two knockdowns as Cardle did in Glasgow and not emerge as the winner, but that is what happened, a point not lost on the vanquished title holder.
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Hide AdHe said: “Maybe I did not push forward enough and try to press home my advantage after I knocked him down.
“I thought it was a close fight, but I am always very critical of my own performance and I know where I went wrong it is now a question of going back to the drawing board with my coach.
“I am still ticking over in the gym and there has been some talk of a rematch with Barrett, though I don’t know whether that will happen now.
“I have to take what happened on the chin, but it does still hurt because I was so close to winning that belt outright.”
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Hide AdCardle sported the scars of defeat in the shape of a nasty cut to the eye, which required six stitches.
There was also speculation on the night in Glasgow that Cardle had suffered a broken jaw as his face was very swollen. X-rays proved that it was no break but ‘only’ bruising to go with badly bruised pride.