By Terence Dooley

Birmingham’s Matthew Macklin hopes to put a stop-start 2010 behind him and get on with the task of winning a world title during 2011.  Macklin, 28-2 (19), wants to take on Sebastian Sylvester, he is pinning his hopes on a fight against the IBF title-holder.

“My present promoter, Frank Warren, has promised he will get me that world title chance and he is a man of his word.  And I will be ready for it,” declared Macklin when speaking to the Birmingham Mail. 

“Sebastian Sylvester is the IBF champion and he is very much on my radar.  He defends his title in Germany on January 22 against Frenchman Mehdi Bouadla and I would be delighted to take on the winner.”

He added: “Sylvester should have enough power to overcome Bouadla, who is moving down from the super-middleweight division.  The winner should be ready to make his defence around April time and that would fit in with my plans if the fight can be made.  I also understand that WBC champion Sergio Martinez has been booked to defend in March against an opponent yet to be named.  The same applies to WBA champion Felix Sturm, who has a date in February in Stuttgart against an opponent to be named [Writer’s note: Sturm is set to take on Ronald Hearns].

“As far as I know the WBO champion Dmitry Pirog has no plans to defend his belt but I am rated in the top ten of all the sections and would relish a match against any one of the champions.  And if they look at my last performance they would undoubtedly relish a match against me.  I wasn’t at my best defending the European title against Spaniard Ruben Varon.  I won the fight easily enough but I got badly beaten up when it shouldn’t have happened.”

Macklin believes that he performs better when he is fighting against the odds; impressive British and European title KO wins over Wayne Elcock and Amin Asikainen bear this claim out.  Indeed, the 28-year-old looked jaded in the Varon encounter and needs a juicy fight to kick start his world title push.

Joe Gallagher, trainer of Macklin, yesterday told me that this will be a huge year for both Macklin and John Murray, both boxers have been ticking over since their last contests, with Macklin expected to resume his full training schedule early this week in order to ensure that he is sharp when the world title call comes.

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