By James Slater: As the U.K gets ready to see if its best heavyweight can score a huge away win in Germany tonight, one of the country’s best middleweights is looking ahead to another big title chance down the road. As fans know, Matthew Macklin gave it his all against defending WBA middleweight boss Felix Sturm in Germany last Saturday, only to come home with a controversial split decision loss attached to his record.
Macklin was so dismayed with the actions of the judges, he urged his countryman David Haye to go for the KO tonight against Wladimir Klitschko. Far from being crushed by the loss, however, Macklin is proud of his great effort and he is also comfortable in the knowledge that many experts had him as a clear winner over Sturm. Now on the world map in a huge way, “Mack The Knife” is looking ahead to either a return with Sturm or a fight with world middleweight king Sergio Gabriel Martinez.
Speaking with BBC Sport recently, Macklin reflected on the Sturm defeat and also spoke about his immediate future.
“Looking back after all the dust has settled, I thought I won the fight easily. No disrespect to Sturm who is a great fighter, but there was only one winner,” Macklin said. “God knows what fight the judges were watching. George Foreman, Andre Ward, all the big hitters, they saw the fight and they had me as the winner.
“He [Sturm] has gone on record as saying he’ll give me a rematch, and we’re in negotiations now. They’re talking about 25th of November, back in Cologne, but I would like to get it somewhere else, over here or in Ireland or in America. I’d love a rematch but I can’t beat him any more clearly aside from knocking him out. Lou DiBella is talking with Brian Peters about a fight between me and Sergio Martinez in Madison Square Garden. So a Sturm rematch is only one option.”
Martinez faces another Brit in his next fight, when he will meet the undefeated Darren Barker on October 1st. Macklin knows Barker well, having twice been set to fight him. Though he’s not altogether dismissing his one-time rival’s chances against the classy southpaw from Argentina, Macklin feels, as do most experts, that Martinez will win. Macklin said it’s possible it could be him challenging Martinez next year.
Both fights, either Sturm II or Martinez, would be attractive fights for Macklin and for the fans, but can he be expected to win either match? Macklin said he would have to KO Sturm to win and there doesn’t seem too much chance of him being able to do that considering how he hit the 32-year-old with everything he had last Saturday, only for Sturm to fight back. It may be then, that Macklin will look more favourably at a Martinez fight. At age 35, it’s possible the man known as “Maravilla” would struggle with 29-year-old Macklin’s sheer workrate and aggression. Sure, Martinez is a wickedly accurate puncher and Macklin would really have to tighten up his defences to avoid being taken out, but no way could the fight be looked at as a mismatch. Not now, not after the display Macklin put on last weekend.
Fully deserving of another big chance, Macklin might just find himself having two lucrative and enticing options from which to choose.