By Sean McDaniel: Former WBC middleweight champion Sebastian Zbik (30-1, 10 KO’s) will be trying to capture the WBA middleweight title on Friday night against long-time middleweight champion Felix Sturm (36-2-2, 15 KO’s) at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne, Germany.

Sturm, 33, only has two losses his record but he arguably should have an additional three because his two draws looked to be defeats and his win over Matthew Macklin last year was also a fight that Sturm appeared to lose. However, he’s next to unbeatable fighting at home in Germany and it takes something really special to beat. As of yet, Sturm hasn’t been beaten other than by KO in Germany and in the U.S by Oscar De La Hoya. In Germany, it looks like Zbik may need a KO if he wants to get a win against Sturm on Friday.

Zbik said this about Sturm at Bild.de “He has been running for three years; one of which is his mandatory defense…The last two fights were weak by Sturm, just just for me but he lost to Macklin. After that fight he almost [lost] against [Martin] Murray. We know exactly what his weaknesses, which will be exploited mercilessly. I’ll pulverize him.”

I can’t see Zbik pulverizing Sturm. Zbik has moderate power and fades in the 2nd half of his fights. He’s a good six round fighter at best, but he’s not a puncher. Zbik will probably do okay for the first half of the fight with his boxing ability, but Sturm will control the rest of the fight just using his jabs and occasional flurries to score points.

Zbik would have to really pour it on if he wanted to beat Sturm, and that’s not Zbik’s style of fighting. He’s more of a pure boxer that circles the ring a lot using jabs and throwing simple combinations without much power.