By William Mackay: Middleweight contender Matthew Macklin (28-2, 19 KO’s) is taking a big step up in competition on June 25th in his title challenge of WBA Super World middleweight champion Felix Sturm (35-2-1, 15 KO’s) at the Lanxess-Arena in Cologne, Germany. Macklin, 28, has been facing European fodder for most of his fights during his 11-year pro career, winning the British and EBU middleweight title along the way.

Macklin’s opposition has been pretty much mediocre with the exceptions of his fight with Jamie Moore, who promptly took Macklin out in a 10th round TKO in 2006. Macklin never avenged that loss and it stands there as a reminder of what happened when Macklin stepped up a level and got smacked down by Moore. Macklin has been a lot more careful since then, taking on a whole bunch of beatable opponents that he could beat and look good against. In his last fight, Macklin took on a fringe contender Ruben Varon and really struggled against him, winning by a narrow 12 round decision last December. Macklin’s flaws were exposed by Varon, who had no problem connecting with power shots through the wide open defense of Macklin.

Sturm has had a long career of facing less than impressive opposition while holding down his WBA middleweight title. Although he’s been blessed with a lot of physical gifts, Sturm has been satisfied to face the little known opposition that has been put in front of him. Sturm is getting up there in age now at 32 and really struggled against fringe contender Ronald Hearns in his last fight in February. However, Sturm still has a great jab and good power when he lets his hands go. He’ll likely go to work jabbing Macklin into submission on June 25th. I see Sturm winning with his jab alone. He won’t need to do much more than that to beat Macklin. We’re talking different levels here.