By Scott Gilfoid: Matthew Macklin (28-4, 19 KO’s) was blown out in his last fight against WBC Diamond middleweight champion Sergio Martinez in an 11th round stoppage last March. Macklin, 30, is now fighting 36-year-old #9 WBC Joachim Alcine (33-2-1, 19 KO’s) in a 10 round scheduled bout on the undercard of the Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs. Sergio Martinez fight card at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Macklin, #7 WBC, #13 WBA, hopes that a victory over Alcine, a former WBC World light middleweight champion, will get Macklin a shot at the winner of the Chavez Jr. vs. Martinez fight.
Macklin said to thesun.co.uk “I could have taken an easier fight, maybe a lower key card and tried to ease my way back in. But I’ve gone straight back in against a former world champion, who statistically has got a better record than me…[I’m] hopefully getting the winner of the main event.”
A couple of things here. First off, Macklin isn’t going to get the winner of the Chavez Jr-Martinez fight. The winner of that fight isn’t going to take a guy that was already knocked out earlier this year. It’s not interesting to face a guy that was beaten by an injured Martinez. Without an injury, Martinez would have likely demolished Macklin in two or three rounds.
Secondly, I don’t consider Alcine a really good fighter. He was blown out in one round by Alfredo Angulo in July of 2010, and only has one victory in his last three fights. What’s the big deal of fighting this guy? Granted, Alcine was a former WBA 154 pound champion, but look who he won the title against – Travis Simms. He didn’t beat anyone that I consider good and was pretty much a paper champion until getting blasted out by Daniel Santos in a 6th round TKO loss in July of 2008. Alcine hasn’t done much since then, beating Eric Mitchell, Christophe Canclaux and David Lemieux. If Macklin can’t beat Alcine then he really needs to consider retirement.
As far as Macklin getting a title shot against the Chavez Jr-Martinez winner, I think there’s zero chance of that happening. The winner of that fight will either face WBA champ Gennady Golovkin or the IBF/WBC champion Daniel Geale. Macklin doesn’t have a belt and there’s no upside in Martinez fighting Macklin again. He already beat him once, so why does he need to do it again?
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