By Ben James: Now that the dust has settled after last nights war between WBA Super World Middleweight title fight between champion Felix Sturm and challenger Matthew Macklin, it is clear that Felix Sturm looked past Macklin and did not seem to take the hungry Brit seriously.

Twenty thousand German fans paid good money to see their champion defend his title, before the fight they were treated to Sturms extravagant entrance with a giant image of him sitting on a gold thrown like some kind of royalty, but Sturms performance did not live up to the flashy entrance and fireworks.

I believe Felix anticipated an easy fight where he could just cover up for the first 4 rounds or so and let the fast starter Macklin burn himself out like he did in his knock out loss to Jamie Moore back in 2006 down at light middleweight. Then Sturm would up the pace and knock Macklin out with his more accurate and powerful shots.

Things did not quite work out this way as the stamina displayed by the challenger was next to none. He kept chasing the champ for 12 tough rounds, taking a lot of hard shots in the process while throwing a higher quantity of shots which was enough to convince one of the local judges that he deserved the win.

German TV had Macklin ahead by up to 4 rounds and British TV had him up by at least a round or two, but said the very worse result for Macklin should have been a draw.

Germany is known for bad decisions, in almost every close fight they will decide in favour of the local champion. This fight should serve as a final warning to David Haye not to leave it in the judges hands next Saturday night.

It is true that if you look at the fight as a whole then the champion did land the cleaner, more powerful shots but judges are not suppose to look at fights from that perspective. It should be judged round by round, the fighter who dominated the most rounds should win the fight and Macklin clearly won at least 7 rounds on anybodies score cards, only in Germany would the judges not give him the victory he deserves.

Having said all this I am under no delusions that Macklin is the better fighter. Sturm is a worthy champion, he just underestimated his opponent and tried to adjust accordingly later in the fight.

Certain media outlets are reporting that Sturm has promised Macklin a rematch in November this year. If this was to happen then my money would be on the champion to win and win in a dominant fashion. Real champions do not make the same mistake twice and Sturm would dominate the fight by using his jab and keeping the gutsy Macklin at bay, eventually knocking him out.

At the end of the day though Macklin deserved to be leaving Germany a world champion, even if he would have lost a rematch. Shame on you WBA and shame on you Germany.