By Scott Gilfoid: The UK’s Matthew Macklin (28-2, 19 KO’s) has a pretty much impossible task of facing WBA Super World middleweight champion Felix Sturm (35-2-1, 15 KO’s) on Saturday night at the Lanxess-Arena, Cologne, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. I wish I could give the 29-year-old Macklin a real chance at winning this fight but I can’t. Macklin is too basic and lacking in the power department to have any real chance at beating a fine fighter like Sturm.

As such, I see Macklin getting massacred in a Ryan Rhodes type slaughter. I don’t see it as a complete slaughter where Macklin is drilled into the canvas in the first few rounds, but I do see it as one of those bouts where Macklin is so far out of his league that the fight turns into one big boring affair where Macklin’s head is turned into a red beach ball from Sturm’s hard jabs.

If you were one of Macklin’s fans in the past you might have changed your mind about him after seeing him go life and death with little known middleweight contender Ruben Varon last December in a disappointing 12 round decision win for Macklin. I personally scored the fight a 12 round draw, but, God, did Macklin look horrible in that fight. His faced looked like he had been run over by a tank by the end of the fight. Macklin seriously looked like he had really taken a beating in that fight. Okay, so if you look at what a guy like Varon did to him, then you just know that Sturm is going to beat the tar out of Macklin. It’s all good though because at least Macklin is getting some valuable experience and a good payday. But as far as Macklin having any real chance of winning goes, he doesn’t. It’s going to be a slaughter and there’s not too much Macklin can do about it.