By Allan Fox: WBA Super World middleweight champion Felix Sturm (37-2-2, 16 KO’s) could set himself up for a big match against WBA World middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin if the 33-year-old Sturm can defeat IBF middleweight champion Daniel Geale (27-1, 15 KO’s) in their important middleweight unification match on September 1st at the Koenig Pilsener Arena, Oberhausen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

It’s not going to be easy for Sturm to get past the 31-year-old Geale because he’s one of the best boxers that Sturm will have ever faced during his career. Although Sturm just finished beating a very good fighter in former WBC middleweight champion Sebastian Zbik by a 9th round stoppage last April, but Zbik isn’t as skilled as Geale and he also doesn’t have the same boxing skills as the Australian.

Geale has one loss on his record, a 12 round split decision victory over a prime Anthony Mundine in 2009. However, that was a fight that could have gone either way, and Geale perhaps should have been the winner. Geale has won his last five bouts since that defeat, beating Kariz, Roman Karmazin, Sebastian Sylvester, Eromosele Albert and Osumanu Adama. Those are all very good fighters, and Geale was able to beat them all pretty much with ease in each fight. His ability to box as well as punch was what proved to be too much for most of these guys, because they didn’t have the skill set to compete with Geale.

Sturm has a great jab and good power when he’s letting his hands go. Like a lot of German based fighters, Sturm is good at covering up and then opening up with a flurry of shots during strategic periods in each round. It seems that German based fighters have a style where they conserve energy by fighting very little for first two-thirds of every round, and the go for broke in the last one-third of the round to try and steal it. It enables the fighters like Sturm to go all out with power shots just before they get a break to rest.