Daniel Geale vs. Jarrod Fletcher on December 3rd in Australia

By Dan Ambrose: Former IBF/WBA middleweight champion Daniel Geale (30-3, 16 KOs) will be returning to the ring in the next two months to face fellow Australian 8 WBA Jarrod Fletcher (18-2, 10 KOs) in a scheduled 12 round boxing match-up on December 3rd at the Horden Pavilion, Moore Park, New South Wales, Australia.

Both Geale and Fletcher are coming off of knockout losses. Fletcher, 30, was stopped in the 5th round last August by Daniel Jacobs in a fight that was mostly one-sided from start to finish.

For Geale’s part, he was blown out by WBA Super World middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin in three rounds last July. Geale mostly ran until Golovkin caught up to him and stopped him in the 3rd.

Geale had talked about wanting to pull off an upset against Golovkin, but it was clear from the first minute of the 1st round that Geale didn’t have the talent to stay in there in front of Golovkin.

Geale is currently ranked at #9 by the WBA, which means he’s going to need to pick up 2-3 wins before he can get another world title shot, preferably against WBA middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs rather than Golovkin.

Jacobs is a vulnerable champion, and it’s possible that Geale might have enough skills to beat him if he can avoid getting clipped by one of Jacob’s big shots. There’s a big difference between Jacobs and Golovkin, so it’s possible but not likely that Geale could beat Jacobs to pick up a world title.

Geale should think about trying to get a title shot against IBF 160 pound champion Jermain Taylor, because he’s definitely vulnerable. Geale isn’t much of a puncher though and that could hurt his chances for beating Jacobs and Taylor. Both of those fighters have had problems dealing with punchers in the past. Geale will have a hard time finding enough power to beat those guys.

Fletcher is in a more difficult situation than Geale, because he doesn’t have the boxing skills or the power to deal with any of the current middleweight champions. At least with Geale, he’s got the skills to compete against Taylor and Jacobs.