By Allan Fox: WBA Super World middleweight champion Felix Sturm (37-2-2, 16 KO’s) outmaneuvered his mandatory challenger Gennady Golovkin (23-0, 15 KO’s) by going to the World Boxing Association and getting approval from them to ignore Golovkin and instead face IBF middleweight champion Daniel Geale (27-1, 15 KO’s) in a unification bout on August 25th in Germany.

The WBA caved in to Sturm’s request, leaving Golovkin with no other choice but to take on WBO middleweight champion Dmitry Pirog (20-0, 15 KO’s) on September 1st. Sturm isn’t going anywhere unless he wins the IBF title off of Geale. He’ll then probably vacate his WBA title in order not to have to face Golovkin. It’ll work out well for Sturm because he’ll probably save himself a knockout loss to the powerful Golovkin.

Geale is a much easier mark than Golovkin, because he’s not much of a puncher and will be fighting Sturm’s game by boxing him instead of slugging.

Geale, 31, won the IBF title last year with a win over Sebastian Sylvester by a 12 round split decision. Since picking up the strap, Geale has taken it easy with wins over Eromosele Albert and Osumanu Adama. Sturm will be a considerable jump up in competition for Geale and I expect him to lose that fight. Sturm easily beat Sylvester by boxing him. Geale, without power, is basically going to be out of his league against Sturm, and by agreeing to fight him in Germany, Geale probably only has a puncher’s chance of winning. The problem is he’s not a puncher. Sturm wins this one.

Golovkin has the much better fight in terms of a competitive match because Pirog can punch and fights a lot like Floyd Mayweather Jr. Pirog hasn’t faced any quality fighters in his short time as the WBO champion, but he did beat Daniel Jacobs a couple of years ago to capture the WBO title.

Golovkin will be a problem for Pirog because he’s going to land eventually and each time he does, he’ll hurt Pirog. We could see a knockout in this fight.