By Scott Gilfoid: If you were to pick out the perfect opponent for WBC Diamond middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (48-2-2, 27 KO’s) to knock cold in his next fight, you might look at Matthew Macklin (28-3, 19 KO’s), because this guy is tailor made for Martinez in every part of his game.

Macklin and Martinez will be meeting up on March 17th in an HBO televised bout at Madison Square Garden in New York. I know Macklin wanted to be seen by Americans to try and win over fans over there, but I think it’s not going to be a very showing because of how good his opponent will be. Macklin probably has no chance of winning this fight and a very good chance of being knocked out.

I know some people think that Martinez is slipping after his less than impressive of Darren Barker last October, but I see that as a case of Barker fighting a strictly survival oriented fight from start to finish. The guy was just playing it safe and trying to not to get hit. That’s the only reason Barker was able to last that long. If a guy isn’t going to take any chance then they’ll sometimes last like Barker did, but he was still getting dominated until the fight was halted.

Macklin’s coming into this fight off of a 12 round decision loss to WBA World middleweight champion Felix Sturm last June. That was a disappointing loss for Mackln because he fought hard, but didn’t have enough talent to get the win. He really should have fought a tune-up or two after that fight to try and get his confidence back, but instead Macklin is going straight into a much tougher fight against Martinez and that’s just asking for trouble. Macklin doesn’t have the tools anyway, but coming into the fight with his confidence likely shaken from his loss to Sturm likely has Macklin really questioning himself.