Golovkin vs. Macklin: Will Matthew fail again?

By Boxing News - 06/11/2013 - Comments

macklin4343By Scott Gilfoid: Matthew Macklin (29-4, 20 KO’s) has stepped up a level twice in his last three fights and both times he’s lost in crushing defeats at the hands of Felix Sturm and Sergio Martinez.

Macklin, #11 WBA, will now be getting another chance, this time against WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (26-0, 23 KO’s) on June 29th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

A loss here for Macklin will almost surely send him sputtering out of the top 15 into the 2nd tier where he have to fight and claw his way to try and get back to the 1st tier.

Macklin has lost 2 out of his last 3 fights, and that’s obviously not a good thing. He can’t afford to get beaten again. If Golovkin thrashes Macklin, I think it’ll take Macklin a long, long time before he gets another crack at the world title.

You can lose once but when you’ve lost twice in the past two years to world champions, then it’s usually time to move on so that other contenders can get their shots at titles.

I don’t know of any one area where Macklin has an advantage against Golovkin. He’s pretty much in a hopeless situation in this fight.

Golovkin is faster, the harder puncher, the better boxer and the more talented guy. The only positive that I can think of for Macklin is he has sometimes has a high work rate depending on who he’s facing.

Against Sergio Martinez, Macklin’s work rate wasn’t impressive. But against the lighter hitting Felix Sturm, Macklin had a high work rate. I suspect that Macklin’s work rate will be anemic against Govovkin, and it needs to be.

If Macklin tries to throw a lot of punches against Golovkin then he’s going to leave himself open to taking a lot of big shots to the head and body. I don’t think Macklin wants that and doubt he’ll be able to handle it.

Macklin needs the pace of the fight to be at a really slow pace where he’s hit as little as possible for him to have a chance to win. But even that’s not a guarantee for success because Golovkin doesn’t need a lot of punches to score knockouts.



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