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FORT MYERS — Freeman Barr could have used a Snickers. He hadn’t eaten in more than a day ... and he wasn’t going anywhere for a while.

He kept his hands in his pockets as the music blared. He had been there, standing in the same spot, for what must have been an hour.

Around him was a waiting room. Some of the people watched Fox News clips on the flat screens overhead. Others talked on their cell phones.

Barr just stood there, hungry and bored.

“I just want to step on the scale,” the Naples resident said, clearly frustrated. “This is taking far too long.”

This was Friday night’s weigh-in on the second floor of Dwyers Irish Pub. Barr joined the 17 other boxers who came here to pass physicals, fill out paperwork and — in case someone forgot — make weight.

Tick, tock. Tick, tock.

Barr must have been the hungriest of the group. He hadn’t stepped inside a ring in more than two years. He hadn’t secured his latest fight until five weeks ago.

The wait killed him.

At least now, unlike so many times before, he knows that something waits for him. Barr did make weight Friday, the news official more than three hours after he entered the noisy restaurant on Tamiami Trail.

So did his opponent.

Barr, 32, will begin his comeback — one he hopes will return him to the top of the WBO rankings — when he faces Buddy “The Road Warrior” Acker tonight at Harborside Event Center. The light-heavyweight match will be the co-main event of a nine-bout card that has been dubbed “Brawl on the River II: Return to Glory,” fitting considering the men represented in the headline fight.

Barr learned two years ago that he suffered from sarcoidosis, a disease characterized by the formation of lesions that appear in the liver, lungs, skin and lymph nodes. He has spent plenty of time in the gym since his last fight — a decision of Tommy Brooks at Harborside in April 2004 — but “The Natural” didn’t feel strong enough to put it on the line until recently.

He has missed out on much, considering he was on the cusp of fighting for the super-middleweight belt three years ago. Not even a May 2003 defeat by Mher Mkrtchyan in Estero, the loss that cost Barr his title shot, could prepare him for the knockdown to come.

But he is back now, ready to defeat whatever stands before him.

“I’ve already been through the hard training,” he said. “I’m waiting on the fight night. Then I can hurry up and get over this and things will go back to normal. I can do like I used to do.”

In his way is someone with a knockout punch, a 41-year-old brawler from Alabama who rides a Harley in his spare time.

Acker (19-9-2) is like a home-run hitter in baseball, sure to strike out here and there but always a threat to put one out of the park as well. He has 15 career KOs as a “professional opponent,” even though most of his bouts come in someone else’s backyard.

Like tonight. The fans at Harborside will be cheering for Barr (26-4), the Bahamas native who has made a home in Southwest Florida. They want to see if he is on his way to recapturing past glory.

Acker’s only chance? He figures he must try to get inside, just as he always does. Maybe he’ll hit the home run.

“I’ve got one chance and that’s to knock them out,” Acker said at the weigh-in, wearing a leather biker’s vest and a matching leather bandana. “I can’t ever rely on a decision to go my way. I know it won’t.”

One thing working against Acker, besides location, is history. Barr has fought 30 times as a professional. He has never been knocked out. He’s never even been knocked off his feet.

And that sums up his journey. The man has battled adversity inside the ring for much of his career — broken fingers, bruises, blurred vision — but only now is he showing how strong his chin can be outside of it.

Tonight, the wait ends.

Time to dip and duck. Time to counterpunch.

“I’ve been out of boxing for two years with an illness,” he said. “If I can return from this I know I can return from anything.”

Fight card -- Harborside Events Center -- Fort Myers -- Action begins at 7 p.m.

Bantamweight: Angel Priolo, Colombia (30-4) vs. Paulino Villalobos, Fort Myers (24-33-2); eight rounds.

Welterweight: Fransisco Ginorio, Palm Bay (5-6-2) vs. Herling Lopez, Naples (3-3-1); four rounds.

Junior middleweight: Ed Paredes, Hollywood (7-1) vs. Mark Tang, Fort Myers (9-7-1); four rounds.

Middleweight: Lonnie Jones, Fort Myers (3-4-2) vs. Ricardo Planter, Jamaica (1-1-2); four rounds.

Junior welterweight: Moises Pedroza, Colombia (24-9-1) vs. Ubaldo Hernandez, Fort Myers (20-17-2); eight rounds. Terry Acker, Tuscaloosa, Ala. (19-9-2) vs. Freeman Barr, Naples (26-4); eight rounds.

Light heavyweight: Hamilton Verano, Newark, N.J. (0-3-2) vs. Ronson Frank, Guyana (4-0); four rounds.

Heavyweight: Edward Slater, Melbourne (5-9) vs. Jerry Simpson, Cedar Rapids, Iowa (1-5-1); four rounds.

Light heavyweight: J.C. Peterson, Fort Myers (0-5) vs. Curtis Jones, Brooklyn, N.Y. (2-2-1); four rounds.