By Sean McDaniel: Former EBU middleweight champion Matthew Macklin (28-3, 19 KO’s) will be watching the October 1st fight between WBC Diamond middleweight champion Sergio Martinez and British challenger Darren Barker very closely, because Macklin wants to take on the winner of that fight in early 2012. Macklin suspects that it will be Martinez that emerges the winner of that fight and he’s probably right.

“It’s likely that Sergio Martinez is going to beat him, and then he’s going to be next,” Macklin said on Sky Sports Ringside.

Macklin doesn’t really care who wins the Barker-Martinez fight, but he figures the more powerful and experienced Martinez will emerge the winner in this fight.

Macklin lost his last fight to WBA Super World middleweight champion Felix Sturm last June in Germany. Macklin gave a good account of himself, but faded in the second half of the fight and lost a lot of his power on his shots during that stretch. Sturm was able to come on behind his powerful jab and 1-2 combinations to win enough of the second half rounds to squeak out a narrow 12 round split decision.

Macklin says he’ll be back in the ring in December and he could possibly be facing fringe middleweight contender Ronald Hearns, who was stopped recently by Sturm in the 7th round last February in Germany. Like Macklin, Hearns fought well for the most part, but got caught with a hard right hand when he was relaxing on the ropes and was taken out.

Martinez has a big edge over Barker in the power department with the hand speed being pretty much the same. Barker, 6’0 1/2″ is a little taller than the 5’10” Martinez, but he’ll have a hard time keeping him on the outside because Martinez has a way of moving in punching range rather quickly to land big power shots.