By Jason Kim: If you live in the United States and you’re interested in seeing WBA Super World middleweight champion Felix Sturm (34-2-1, 14 KO’s) fight the #12 ranked WBA contender Ronald Hearns (26-1, 20 KO’s) on Saturday night, you’re in luck because the fight will reportedly picked up by ESPN3 and shown in the U.S. The fight will be taking place at the Porsche Arena, in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, and it will be the 9th title defense by the 32-year-old Sturm.

It would have been a little more interesting had Sturm decided to face a dangerous opponent rather than Hearns, a fringe contender who has never beaten a 1st tier fighter before.

Other than being the son of former boxing great Thomas Hearns, there’s nothing really spectacular to note about the 32-year-old Hearns. All of his wins have come against B level 2nd tier opponents. He stepped it up once in his career against fringe contender Harry Joe Yorgey in 2009 and was pulverized and taken out in a 9th round TKO. Hearns was too slender and weak in that fight and ended up taking a beating. Hearns then went back to facing 2nd tier opponents after that and has done nicely in beating the lower quality fighters that he’s been put in with. It’s somewhat odd that Hearns is getting a title shot given that he hasn’t beaten anyone and is ranked low. However, Sturm doesn’t seem to have any qualms about taking fighters ranked near the bottom when defending his title, so Hearns’ low ranking might have actually worked in his favor in this one.

Sturm has wasted much of his career facing guys that slip under the boxing radar of most casual fans. He could have helped himself if he had fought someone like Arthur Abraham or Kelly Pavlik at someone in his career. Instead, there’s really not much to look at when surveying Sturm’s career record. Perhaps a fight against Sebastian Sylvester is the high point of his career.

Sturm should easily beat Hearns on Saturday, but that’s not saying much because Hearns has never beaten a top tier fighter before.