By Sean McDaniel: Number #3 ranked WBA middleweight contender Matthew Macklin (28-2, 19 KO’s) has made a name for himself in the past couple of years running over 2nd and 3rd tier opposition in the UK and capturing both the British and the European Boxing Union middleweight titles. Macklin, 28, has proven that he’s a slight cut above the best domestic level opposition in the UK. Now, after 10 years as a pro, Macklin will be facing his first ever world class opponent in 38-year-old Ronald “Winky” Wright (51-5-1, 25 KO’s) in a 10 round bout on the undercard of the April 9th Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Erik Morales fight at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Even though Wright is up there in age and hasn’t fought in the past two years since losing to Paul Williams in a one-sided 12 round decision in April 2009, Wright is still a cut above the kinds of opponents that Macklin has build his padded record against. This is the whole worry here.

Macklin is a limited slugger that has been able to take advantage of the poor opposition that he’s been matched against since turning pro a decade ago. It’s disappointing that it’s taken Macklin 10 long years just to get to the point where he’s facing the deteriorated 38-year-old Wright instead of having faced a strong middleweight contender years ago. I guess you can say better late than never in the case of Macklin. However, I think Wright is going to be too big of a jump up in competition for Macklin and he’s going to end up failing miserably in this first real test.