By Scott Gilfoid: WBC Diamond middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (48-2-2, 27 KO’s) battles his third consecutive European opponent in Matthew Macklin (28-3, 19 KO’s) tonight in what promises to be a fight that will end by knockout at the Madison Square Garden, in New York, New York. But don’t get fooled into thinking it’s one of those type of fights where either guy can potentially be knocked out in this one, because believe me the only one that’s going to get knocked out in this fight is the 28-year-old Macklin.

What makes this such a sure thing KO win for Martinez is that Macklin has never really learned how to fight properly. Macklin is a pressure fighter from the word go but without the power and the defense that most pressure fighters have. He’s basically a wide open pressure fighter with only average power and limited stamina. We saw in Macklin’s defeat to WBA World middleweight champion Felix Sturm that Macklin can’t even punch harder than Sturm, who will never be mistaken as a tremendous puncher in the division. Martinez is an amazing talent with blazing hand speed, incredible one-punch power, superb counter punching ability and great defense and mobility. Martinez is the entire package. He’s not a fighter that is good only or two areas; Martinez is a fighter that is outstanding on many levels. He may be getting up there in age at 37, but he’s good enough to dominate the middleweight division well into his 40s. If the best that the division has is the likes of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Darren Barker and Macklin, then Martinez could reign over the division until his mid-40s or even later because that’s a pretty basic bunch.

Macklin hasn’t improved much since he got spanked by Jamie Moore in a 10th round TKO in September 2006. He’s still just as hittable now as he was then. The only difference is he’s faced lesser fighters than Moore since then with the exception of Sturm, and the results have been mostly positive for Macklin. However, tonight Macklin will be facing a fighter even better than Moore and that’s bad news for Macklin because he’s going to take a beating and will likely be level on the canvas face first or on his back staring up at the lights. It’s going to be short, ugly and brutal for Macklin.