By Allan Fox: WBA Super World middleweight champion Felix Sturm (37-2-2, 16 KO’s) will be fighting IBF middleweight champion Daniel Geale (27-1, 15 KO’s) on Saturday night in an attempt to unify the titles at the Koenig Pilsener Arena, Oberhausen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

You can see it that way or see it as the lesser of two bad options for Sturm, because if he didn’t take this fight he’d have been forced to fight WBA World middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin and that would have been a very, very hard fight for Sturm to take.

At least by facing Geale in the unification match, Sturm guarantees himself a little more time as the WBA champion, while at the same time perhaps creating an escape route to avoid the Golovkin fight permanently if he wants to by vacating the WBA title and keeping the IBF strap.

I like Geale as a fighter, but he’s still pretty limited and is just a shade better than guys like Sebastian Sylvester. Geale doesn’t have Sturm’s power or his boxing ability, and that means he’s going to lose on Saturday night unless he can somehow knock Sturm out. That’s not likely because Geale isn’t a puncher and is a step down for Sturm compared to the hard hitters he’s faced in bouts against Matthew Macklin and Martin Murray.

Geale is a finesse fighter facing a guy that can dominate those types of fighters with his jab. Unlike Macklin, Geale doesn’t have power to fall back on if his boxing skills aren’t able to get him past Sturm. With the fight being held in Germany where Sturm lives, Geale pretty much has no chance of winning this fight unless gets very lucky and scores a knockout. He won’t. Sturm wins this fight and will likely vacate the WBA title at some point if and when the World Boxing Association try and force him to fight Golovkin.