By Jason Kim: Rather than face his his mandatory challenger Gennedy Golovkin, WBA Super World middleweight champion Felix Sturm (37-2-2, 16 KO’s) bout a little time by facing IBF middleweight champion Daniel Geale (27-1, 15 KO’s) in a unification bout on September 1st at the Koenig Pisener Arena, Oberhausen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

Normally Sturm would be in the position of being stripped of his World Boxing Association title for failing to fight Golovkin, but by taking a unification bout against Geale, it takes precedence over a mandatory title defense. As good as Geale is, it’s a fight that is a lot less risky than taking on the hard hitting Golovkin, who has one punch power.

Sturm is a good jabber, and would no doubt make it difficult for Golovkin. But having someone with that kind of power tagging Sturm in the head for 12 rounds, it would be a tough fight for him at this point in his career.

Sturm is no longer dominating the better fighters in the division like he used to earlier in his career. However, we still don’t know how good Sturm was even earlier in his career because he never faced the top guys in all those years. He never fought Kelly Pavlik, he never Jermain Taylor, and he never fought Arthur Abraham. Those were logical fights that Sturm could have and should have taken, because he after all was the WBA champion, but he didn’t. So Sturm may not be slowing down all that much, but rather he’s finally having to fight the top guys because the WBA is finally ranking quality fighters in their top 15 instead of the fodder that they ranked throughout the early years that Sturm was their champion.

Geale, 31, has good skills and is an excellent boxer. However, he’s not much of a puncher, and he’s going to have it tough against Sturm simply because he’ll be facing Sturm in Germany where Sturm never loses. Winning a decision over there is going to be tough for Geale, and I can’t see him winning a decision. I think he’s going to need a KO to win, but he doesn’t have much power to make that happen.