By Jim Dower: Sebastian Zbik (30-1, 10 KO’s) lost his WBC middleweight title last June in a 12 round majority decision loss to Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Sometimes it doesn’t hurt to lose, as we see with Zbik now getting an immediate shot at a title against WBA World middleweight champion Felix Sturm (36-2-2, 15 KO’s) on April 13th at the Lanxess-Arena, Cologne, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

Sturm, 33, is ripe for the picking having been battled to a standstill in his last two fights against Matthew Macklin and Martin Murray. Sturm probably should have lost both fights but given that the fights took place in his home country of Germany, it’s not surprising that he was able to get through both fights without getting a “L” on his resume. But he’s got another tough fight on his hands with Zbik, who is on the same level as Macklin and Murray, if not a slight notch above.

If Zbik wants to win this fight he’s going to have to use his jab a lot because he’s probably not going to be able to stop Sturm due to his lack of power. Zbik isn’t a big middleweight and lacks the punch to take Sturm out. He’s better off not even trying because Sturm’s defense is extraordinary and he does well against sluggers. Sturm has problems against fighters that throw a lot of punches and ones that can fight well on the inside with uppercuts. Zbik is neither unfortunately. He doesn’t throw a lot of punches and he’s not a good inside fighter. He’s got serviceable skills in both areas but not enough to where he’ll be able to give Sturm any problems if he takes that approach to beating him. What Zbik needs to do is work on his jab and fine tune it so that he can jab Sturm and open up areas where he land his power shots. But Zbik shouldn’t bother trying to pound Sturm into submission because he doesn’t have the power to win that kind of fight.