By Peter Wells: For some fighters they were born into the boxing world with 9 lives. Meaning if they lost their first world title shot it wouldn’t matter because the next year they’d get a second shot. This can sometimes be to do with age as they are still young enough to have another couple attempts, or usually it’s to do with money.

Fighters who make names for themselves early in their careers, usually through Olympics will get better treatment than those that just popped up into the pros.

Others fighters though are left with the hard task of choosing when they will shoot for glory. If they fail, that is it they will settle back into domestic level and a title shot may never come by again. This is why at 29 the Birmingham fighter Matthew Macklin will have one shot only at securing a world title. 2 defeats have slowed him down but he’s steadily moved through the British and European ranks. Those defeats though may be a blessing in disguise as maybe his shot couldn’t have come at a better time.

But that doesn’t mean that the WBA Middleweight champion will be feeling any kinder as he himself knows that a loss for him may be the last time he’ll fight for a world title. At 32 he has settled into the Middleweight division and none of his last 9 challengers have knocked him off the thrown. Javier Castillejo was the last man to beat the German via 10th round TKO but a year later Sturm took Javier’s WBA title back and has never looked back since. There’s a good reason as well as in 2004 he lost his WBO Middleweight crown in a controversial decision to Oscar De La Hoya.

Felix is clearly the betting favourite and both fighters are going to feel a huge weight upon their shoulders, but only one can keep their careers on the title path. If Felix can use his jab and get through to Macklin with his strong right hand he can turn rounds into close rounds which would all but secure his world title. But Matthew will give the champion trouble and his uppercuts could cause Sturm some problems. Macklin will be strong and we may have it very close but that would mean that Felix Sturm would get a unanimous decision to hold onto his title. Macklin must though limit what the home favourite can do and try catching the German when he lets his hands go. It may be tough but winning isn’t meant to be easy. If he stick to that and keeps out of Felix’s punching range when the German let’s his hands go – catching him with counters – then the world title may be coming back to the Midlands.