Macklin-Wright: Matthew hoping to get a title shot

By William Mackay: Middleweight contender Matthew Macklin (28-2, 19 KO’s) faces 39-year-old former IBF/WBA/WBC/WBO junior middleweight champion Ronald “Winky” Wright (51-5-1, 25 KO’s) on April 9th at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Macklin, 28, is 11 years younger than Wright and is still hoping to get a title shot against one of the middleweight champions in the near future so that Macklin can try and capture his first world title. However, unlike Wright, Macklin isn’t loaded with talent.

Everything comes hard for Macklin and he’s faced far less talented opposition over the course of his 10-year pro career. It’s disappointing that after 10 years, all Macklin has accomplished was picking up a British and EBU title. By this time, Macklin should have at least fought for a title and found out whether he had the talent to cut it at the upper level. Sadly, Macklin looked poor even defending his EBU title against his first challenger Ruben Varon last December, defeating him by a narrow 12 round decision.

This isn’t a good sign for Macklin going into his fight with Wright, because even though Wright is 39 and getting up there in age, he’s still likely better than Varon. This means that Macklin could be in for a long and embarrassing night on April 9th. Hopefully Macklin can land something big and hurt Wright, because if not, Macklin will be eating jabs all night long and taking a lot of punishment from the former champion. Wright hasn’t fought since losing by a 12 round decision to Paul Williams in April 2009. However, that was Williams, a very good fighter. Wright isn’t beaten by just anyone. You still have got to have a lot of talent to beat him.

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