By Allan Fox: IBF middleweight champion Daniel Geale (28-1, 15 KO’s) doesn’t think that the 37-year-old Anthony Mundine (44-4, 26 KO’s) will be able to keep up with him on January 30th, when they meet up in their rematch at the Entertainment Centre in Sydney, Australia.

Geale thinks he’s got much youth and skill for Mundine to lose to him this time after getting beaten by a controversial 12 round split decision in 2009.

Geale said to smh.com.au “I won’t take anything away from Anthony…the guy has skills and he can still step up when he needs to. You can’t take him too lightly at all…I don’t see him wanting or being able to stick with me.”

Geale figures that Mundine isn’t quite what he was and he’s probably right. Mundine has put his once promising career in the slow lane after losing to Mikkel Kessler in 2005. While Mundine did pick up the vacant WBA super middleweight title in 2007 in beating fellow Australian Sam Soliman by a 9th round TKO, Mundine failed to do much with the belt other than defending it four times in Australia against largely weak and obscure opposition four times before losing the title when he failed to defend the belt against Kessler, his mandatory challenger in 2008.

After messing around in Australia against less than dangerous opposition, Mundine then moved down to light middleweight and beat Rigoberto Alvarez to win the interim WBA light middleweight title in October 2011. But then he did nothing move forward to try and fight the WBA champion Austin Trout, and it’s perhaps a good thing because Trout would have beaten Mundine.

In his last fight, Mundine beat 41-year-old Bronko McKart by a 7th round TKO in July of 2012. Again, this wasn’t the kind of opponent that Mundine should be fighting at this point in his career because he should have been facing the best at middleweight or whatever division he’s fighting but instead he’s still wasting time.

Geale is fresh off his 12 round split decision victory over WBA Super World middleweight champion Felix Sturm last September in one of Geale’s best performances of his career.

Geale and Mundine appear to be going in different directions. Geale is getting the good fights and could end up fighting in a unification bout in 2013, whereas Mundine is just hanging around not fighting the guys he should be at his age.