By Dan Ambrose: In an all Australian clash, IBF middleweight champion Daniel Geale (28-1, 15 KO’s) will be defending his title against 37-year-old Anthony Mundine (44-4, 26 KO’s) on January 31st in Sydney, Australia. Geale preferred taking this fight rather than defending his WBA Super World middleweight title against WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin.

This cost Geale his WBA strap because the World Boxing Association then promptly stripped him of his belt for failing to defend it against Golovkin after he’d been ordered to take the fight.

Geale chose Mundine because it’s a bigger money fight for him at home in Australia. Geale doesn’t have much of a fan base in United States where Geale would have been looking to fight him. Additionally, Geale has a much better chance at beating the aging Mundine than he does at fighting the younger and harder hitting Golovkin. That’s a fight that would have proven to be very difficult for Geale to win because he doesn’t have much power and that would mean he’d have to take Golovkin’s big shots for as long as the fight lasts, which likely wouldn’t be too long with Golovkin pounding on him.

Mundine already beat Geale by a controversial 12 split decision in May 2009. However, that was when Mundine was a little younger, and now he’s both slower and older. Mundine has lost a few steps and that should give Geale enough of an edge to beat him this time.

The Geale-Mundine fight likely won’t attract a lot of interest outside of Australia unfortunately, but it will be big for the fellow Aussies.

Boxing fans want to see Geale step it up and try and fight Golovkin, Sergio Martinez or Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Mundine is a good fighter, but he’s been kind of out of the loop for ages fighting mostly in Australia. It’s not really as interesting to see Geale fighting him than it is the better known fighters at middleweight that are still fighting at the top of their games.