By William Mackay: Middleweight Matthew Macklin (26-2, 18 KO’s) will be taking on little known Georgian Shalva Jomardashvili (27-2-1, 19 KO’s) for the vacant European Boxing Union (EBU) middleweight title on Saturday in Frank Warren’s Magnificent Seven card at the LG Arena, in Birmingham.

Macklin, 28, was supposed to be fighting Darren Barker. However, Barker was injured, and instead of dropping out of the card, a replacement opponent was found for Macklin in the 23-year-old little known Jomardashvili. I’ve never seen him fight, so it’s hard to know how well Macklin will do against him.

However, I do know that Jomardashvili has lost two out of his last four fights with one of his fights being a draw. That’s not a good sign, and I don’t know how or why Jomardashvili was selected to fight Macklin. There had to be someone better than this guy for Macklin to fight, don’t you think?

Never the less, my guess is this fight will be a slaughter with Macklin destroying Jomardashvili in one or two rounds. This guy hasn’t faced anyone and he’s going to be in way over his head against Macklin.

It’s too bad a better alternative wasn’t found for Macklin to fight because this bout will probably end all too quickly and fans won’t get their monies worth. Instead of wasting his time on guys like Jomardashvili and the EBU title, Macklin needs to be going after one of the world middleweight titles so that he can get a big payday and possibly win a title.

He might be good enough to beat WBA middleweight champion Felix Sturm, but if he waits too long, Macklin is going to ruin his chances of being a champion someday.

Prediction: Macklin by 1st round TKO