By Scott Gilfoid: Irish middleweight Matthew Macklin (28-3, 19 KO’s) has gained confidence going into his fight against WBC Diamond middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (48-2-2, 27 KO’s) after watching Martinez struggle to stop Darren Barker by an 11th round TKO win last October. Martinez didn’t dominate that fight the way he normally wins his fights, and Macklin sees some vulnerability there.

Macklin, 29, will get his chance to show what he can do against Martinez on March 17th when they fight at the Madison Square Garden, in New York, New York, United States. Macklin told the BBC “I think he is a big better than he was then but I took encouragement because he still showed that if you get your tactics right you can put on him and he can be hit.”

Macklin wants to hit Martinez a lot, but it make come at a huge price by ending him getting knocked out by Martinez. Martinez is a high volume puncher who wins his fights by out-landing his opponent. However, Macklin has very little power and mediocre at best defensive skills. He tires early in his fights if he can’t score a quick knockout and tends to look very average even against the softest of opponents.

Macklin looked horrible in going life and death against Ruben Varon in a close 12 round decision win in December 2010 in a fight in which Macklin took an enormous amount of head shots in the process of winning the fight. And last year, Macklin lost a 12 round decision to WBA World middleweight champion Felix Sturm after completely running out of gas in the last six rounds and getting out-punched by the light hitting Sturm. Macklin was hit a lot in that fight and he deserved to lose it. I know Macklin and his fans feel he should have won, but I don’t agree. Macklin deserved to lose that fight because he tired out.