Matthew Macklin says he’ll retire if he loses to Welborn

By Boxing News - 08/24/2015 - Comments

macklin45By Scott Gilfoid: Former three time world title challenger Matthew Macklin (32-6, 21 KOs) says he’ll retire from boxing if he loses his October 17th fight against Jason Welborn (17-3, 6 KOs) at the Barclaycard Arena, in Birmingham, UK. Macklin will be dropping down to the junior middleweight division for this fight.

What’s interesting about that is it’s been nine years since Macklin last fought at 154 when he was stopped in the 10th round by Jamie Moore in September 2006. Macklin made the right move in moving up to middleweight after that fight. But I think it’s a horrible idea for Macklin to be moving back down in weight at 33.

Macklin’s really asking for trouble in moving back down in weight for this fight, and I won’t be surprised if Macklin gets stopped again. I mean, Macklin has no business fighting at 154 at his age after all those years.

Macklin, 33, is getting up there in age and he’s been knocked out a couple of times recently by Jorge Sebastian Heiland and Gennady Golovkin. Those defeats go along with Macklin’s losses to Sergio Martinez and Felix Sturm. Obviously, things aren’t going too well for Macklin, as he’s getting further and further away from world title contention. But despite the mess of losses that Macklin has suffered in the last couple of years, he believes that he can soon be in position for another world title shot.

I don’t know how he’s going to do it without beating some well-known fighters. Certainly, beating an unknown like the 29-year-old Welborn isn’t going to do much for Macklin. He’s going to need a real scalp for him to get in position for a world title shot.

“It’s a step down for me but sometimes you have to regroup,” said Macklin via irish-boxing.com. “If I lost I’d definitely retire. I still want to be a world champion. I can’t afford to drop down to his level. I’m several levels above, I’ve consistently proved that.”

I don’t know if Welborn is good enough to beat Macklin, but I can definitely see Macklin getting beaten again in the near future if he faces a contender that is any good at all. Macklin is just too vulnerable for him to be able to beat any of the top contenders in the division.

The good news for Macklin is that Welborn has been beaten by the likes of Frankie Gavin, Liam Smith and Tyan Booth by knockout losses in the past. You have to figure that if a bunch of non-punchers like that were able to defeat Welborn, then Macklin will have a good chance of making quick work of him on October 17th, but then again you never know. I’m sure that Welborn will have his confidence up for this fight due to him knowing how many times that Macklin has recently been routed.

Macklin recently got a rare win in beating Sandor Micsko by a 2nd round knockout last May in a nice little mismatch.

Macklin has a fight this month against an opponent still to be determined on August 28th at the H10 Andalucia Plaza, Puerto Banus, Marbella, Andalucía. You can only imagine who Macklin’s opponent will be given that they still haven’t announced to who is and we’re only four days away from the fight.

“I feel like going down to 154 pounds will give me a new lease of life,” Macklin said.

Macklin is likely going to be weight drained for this fight, and I think it could wind up with a really bad outcome for him. I can understand Macklin looking to reinvent himself in a new weight class, but I think it’s too late for him to make that kind of move at this point in his career.



Comments are closed.