By Dan Ambrose: WBA middleweight champion Felix Sturm (33-2-1, 14 KO’s) will be fighting for the first time in over a year when he takes on 37-year-old former WBA/WBC welterweight champion Ricardo Mayorga (28-7-1, 22 KO’s) on September 4th at the Lanxess-Arena, Cologne, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. Sturm has been embroiled with management problems for the past year and is now finally clear of them. Given the large amount of time off between fights, Sturm has decided to ease his way back into the thick of things by facing the ring-rusty Mayorga, who hasn’t fought in over two years since being stopped in the 12th round by Shane Mosley in 2008.

Mayorga had been looking at starting a MMA career. However, that was canceled and now he’s back with his promoter Don King. This should be an interesting fight if Mayorga has anything left in the tank. He gave Mosley a lot of problems with his heavy pressure and looping shots in his last fight. Mayorga will have to look to crowd and apply pressure to Sturm if he has any hopes of beating him. Sturm is quite good at fighting on the outside and using little more than his jabs to win his fights. Mayorga can’t compete with Sturm on the outside in a jab contest. The only way that Mayorga has any chance of winning this fight is go rush Sturm like he did in his two wins over Vernon Forrest many years ago and turn the fight into a brawl.

Sturm isn’t good at fighting on the inside and was stopped in the 10th round by Javier Castillejo four years ago in 2006. Sturm couldn’t handle the inside attack from Castillejo and ended up getting taken out. Mayorga has lost four out of his last seven fights, and it’s doubtful he will want to go through a grueling fight in order to get the win. It’s possible for him to beat Sturm, but he would have to be at his very best and would have to force Sturm to fight on the inside where he’s not as skilled and not comfortable.

Sturm will likely keep the fight on the inside and have an easy time picking the older Mayorga apart. This is the perfect comeback opponent for Sturm to fight, but he’s got to be smart and stay away from mixing it up with Mayorga early in the fight while he’s still got energy. Once the fight goes into the second half, Mayorga will quickly run out of gas and be much more manageable for Sturm.