Geale defeats Fletcher

By Boxing News - 12/03/2014 - Comments

By Jim Dower: Former IBF/WBA 160 pound champion Daniel Geale (3-3, 16 KOs) easily beat fellow Australian Jarrod Fletcher (18-3, 10 KOs) by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision on Wednesday night at the Horden Pavilion, Moore Park, New South Wales, Australia.

Fighting for the first time since he was obliterated in 3 rounds by WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin last July, Geale pounded out a 12 round decision over the over-matched Fletcher by the scores 119-108, 119-108 and 119-108.

The fight was competitive during the first half of the fight, but Fletcher gassed out badly in the 2nd half of the fight and Geale was able to go on and dominate the action with his jab and sharp combinations.

Fletcher was coming off of a 5th round knockout loss to Daniel Jacobs last August in a fight that was one-sided for the most part. Fletcher was too slow and weak to compete with Jacobs in that fight, and it turned out badly for him in the 5th.
Geale’s victory still doesn’t fix the problems he has at 160. He’s in a division where there are solid champions that have too much talent for him right now. The only guys that Geale could potentially match up against is Jermain Taylor and the winner of the Matt Karobov vs. Andy Lee.

Geale will likely be out of his class against any of those three fighters right now. Even if he were able to somehow beat one of them to pick up a middleweight title, Geale is going to have problems trying to defend his title because the division has too many solid fighters at this time. It’s quite possible that the 33-year-old Geale won’t be able to do much in the division at this point in his career other than stick around and be a gate keeper type fighter.

Geale’s lack of power and size will limit what he can do at 160. He’s going to be forced to try and out-box most of the guys he faces, and he lacks the size and power to run over people the way that Golovkin and Miguel Cotto are doing.



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