By Eric Thomas: WBA World middleweight champion Felix Sturm (36-2-2, 15 KO’s) faces one of his tougher fights during his five year run as the World Boxing Association champion on April 13th against former WBC middleweight champ Sebastian Zbik (30-1, 10 KO’s) at the Lanxess Arena, in Cologne, Germany.

Zbik, 30, unlike most of the questionable opposition that Sturm has defended his title against over the years, can actually fight. Zbik has got some real skills and enough power to give the aging 33-year-old Sturm some real problems in this fight.

Sturm is no longer dominating his opposition like he’d done earlier in his rein as the WBA champion and is pretty much going all the way to the wall to scrape out wins or in the case of his last fight, draws. His competition has finally caught up to him and he’s winning now based on his superb jab and excellent defensive skills. However, those qualities can only carry Sturm so far and he’s going to have to come up with more than just a jab if he wants to beat Zbik.

Zbik may have lost his WBC title in his last fight against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. last June, but he gave Chavez Jr. a much tougher fight than anyone else has in the last couple of years and did well enough to comes within a small handful of rounds from beating him.

Other than his wins over Ruben Varon and Domenico Spada, Zbik has fought largely 2nd tier opposition through much of his career. It didn’t seem to hurt him much other wasting a significant portion of his career. Zbik didn’t start facing quality opposition until he was 28, and by then he’d already been a pro for five years.

Zbik is going to need to take the fight to Sturm for him to have a chance of winning this fight. He can’t stay on the outside and let Sturm dominate him with his jab like he does most of his opponents.