By Terence Dooley
Matthew Macklin went into last week’s WBA “super” middleweight title challenge to Felix Sturm, now 36-2-1 (15), as a massive underdog, seen by many as the ideal foil for Sturm’s considered boxing style. Macklin, though, tore up the script by tearing into the 32-year-old titlist before losing via a controversial split decision.
Fans have heavily criticized the 116-112 cards produced in Sturm’s favour by Roberto Ramirez and Jose Ignacio Martinez. The third man, Levi Martinez, delivered a 113-115 total for Macklin, a much fairer reflection on the fight even if you happened to have Sturm ahead by the same score, as I did.
Macklin has since confirmed that the Germany-based boxer has offered him a replay, further proof that the storm surrounding the fight has rained down heavily on the defending champion. Felix was engaging in a voluntary contest and had no reason to honour their contractual rematch agreement, ironically an arrangement that was put into place to protect Sturm’s interests.
Indeed, ‘Mack The Knife’, whilst no doubt disappointed with the result, may benefit hugely from the outcome. The Birmingham-based boxer kept his cards close to his chest earlier this year when walking away from an EBU fight with Khoren Gevor, weathering a lot of criticism before announcing that he had secured the Sturm date.
Since Saturday’s much discussed result, the former ABA title winner has played his cards right, saying the correct things and conducting himself well before the media. Quietly but firmly shaming Sturm into a rematch that he could have walked away from.
Moreover, there has been a lot of sympathy from the boxing community, many of who scored the fight widely in Macklin’s favour. Arguing that Felix did not deserve to win by a four point margin yet claiming that the visitor won by four, five and in some cases six points. The truth is that it was a close fight; the decision as to who won it fell on the side of the precise punching of Sturm rather than the sound and fury of Macklin’s rolling thunder pressure.
Scoring aside, the most positive noises have come from Sturm himself, in talking about the rematch, and from Lou DiBella, who guides consensus boss Sergio Martinez. In a Twitter message, DiBella stated that ‘Macklin won the fight’ and the canny New Yorker is unlikely to take his charge over to Germany for a unification with Sturm after Saturday’s perceived partiality.
On the other side of the coin, Sturm rarely travels, fighting away from home twice in his ten year career, he now controls his own promotional outfit and is unlikely to bend to demands that he journeys to the US to meet Martinez. Leaving the Sturm-Martinez camps at an impasse and, again, leaving the road clear for Sturm-Macklin II.
Sergio is penciled in to defend against Macklin’s British rival Darren Barker in October although the contracts have yet to be signed; the Sturm versus Macklin return could be on for sometime in November. Martinez is expected to win, Macklin must be confident of building on the weekend’s performance, leaving the way clear for Martinez and Macklin to unify the WBC and WBA titles sometime in the New Year if both men post victories. Or maybe even for Macklin to gazump his British rival and get a Martinez tilt due to public demand.
Speculation, sure, but there is every indication that Matthew comes out of his world title tilt a winner in defeat and with more bargaining power than Ireland’s Paul McCloskey, whose loss to Amir Khan was deemed controversial but has now ebbed into the background due to the passage of time and the truth of the contest – McCloskey did not show enough to force his way into further world title fights.
Macklin, though, seems to have another title shot in the bag, a bright future given his ability to negotiate his way into strong positions and his profile has been raised exponentially by the feelings of injustice surrounding those 116-112 cards.
Although he has still not reached the promised land of a world title, the Brummie, like Lennox Lewis after the draw with Evander Holyfield in 1999, takes a lot of goodwill, belief and the scrutiny of the world into his next major fight. Matthew may not be the boss of the middleweights but his name is on the lips of fans, the German media, Sturm and Martinez’s promoter – a good place to be as he plots his next move.
As for the fight itself, all talk of robbery, conspiracy and hometown cooking aside, it was a simple case of what you like. Punch stats show Macklin out-landing the champion in every round bar the eleventh for a 187-314 total, he started fast, worked the body and his attacking fury peaked in the sixth, a round in which he landed at an overall 37% success rate and hammered home 22 of 52 power shots for an impressive 42% return.
Ironically, Sturm’s epic excursion to the ring may have been a hindrance for the champion rather than a psychologically draining experience for the challenger. During the inordinate, and plain wrong, wait for the titlist to enter the ring, Macklin calmly paced around under the hot lights, took to his stool for periods, maintaining his composure and physical sheen. By the time the WBA holder got to the ring, he was bone dry, evidence of both weight struggles, he is alleged to have lost over thirty lbs during the camp, and a poor warm up.
Macklin’s quick start kicked Sturm into life, I had the title holder 2-4 down after the sixth yet he braced himself and used straight, spearing shots and little hooks to land cleanly and with impressive accuracy to tighten things up at 5-5 going into the final two on my card. His excellent jab propping up his accuracy and punch stats throughout the middle passage.
Round eleven was a key round, only two punches in it, 22 to 20 for Sturm and Macklin respectively, and a straight choice between Sturm’s accuracy, 46%, his highest of the fight, or Macklin’s profligacy, 89 thrown and 20 landed.
Those who favour aggression and getting shots out there would have plumped for Sturm in this one; if you went for accuracy then Felix may have got the nod, he certainly took the twelfth, hurting Macklin late and carrying the last two on my card to net the decision.
The fact that Macklin out-landed Sturm in all but one round is not proof enough, nor is it enough to point to the figures alone, as Winky Wright once said, “It is called boxing, not counting”, you have to look at the fight, look at the punch quality and then score your rounds accordingly. For example, Macklin threw over a hundred more jabs but were they as strong and effective as Sturm’s?
In many ways it was similar to the Wright and Jermain Taylor encounter in 2006, minus the damp squib of a final round. It is a middleweight fight to be proud of, proving that the classic division delivers the classiest entertainment if the right fights are made.
Arguably, Macklin has taken everything away from Sturm bar the title; he will now plot his revenge. There is no doubt that he will learn from the contest, maybe cranking down the pressure a tad to bring in his own boxing skills and ability to land clean, hard and showy shots to take the eyes of the judges.
One thing is for sure, the 29-year-old eats, sleeps and lives the sport, he will dissect the twelve rounds and is likely to give Sturm even more hell next time, the big questions surrounding the rematch are whether ‘Leonidas’ managed to shine in patches for one last time, if making the weight has become too much for him and if he can deal with the improvements and confidence that his 28-3 (19) challenger will bring into the next one.
It could prove to be an exciting end to the year down at 160lbs with the tantalizing possibly that come 2012 the WBA and WBC titles will be held by fighters who can actually sit down and work out a deal. This writer always maintained that Macklin would one day win a middleweight world title, if he notches up a W in the return then he could be in a position to go for all the marbles.
Coda:
Joe Gallagher went into the fight with a 49-0 record and one or two doubters. The trainer has often stated that “Records are for DJs” when asked about his winning run and never doubted that it would culminate in a world title.
Skeptics claimed that the ledger had been pieced together from routine wins over journeymen and the odd English, British, Inter-Wotsit and European title fight, that it would be broken as soon as the Gallagher’s Gym team entered world title waters. They were both right and wrong, the run is gone but Gallagher and Macklin proved that they belong at world level; the two men implemented a plan, stayed focused on the night and came close to netting a major honour.
In short, they may have dropped the camp’s ‘0’ yet it was a contentious reverse and one that bore witness to their respective world-class credentials. Gallagher will have already put the disappointment to one side, John Murray takes on Kevin Mitchell on July 9th, the coach goes from vying for a world title against experienced German trainer Fritz Sdunek to taking on one of the daddies of British boxing in London’s Jimmy Tibbs.
Big nights, big fights and huge challenges, everything Gallagher wanted to experience when he turned professional as a coach ten years ago. He can place a big asterisk next to that 49-1 and will be confident of picking up where he left off when Murray takes to the EXCEL Arena ring. All this and a Sturm rematch to look forward to, Gallagher is living the dream and doing the work, there is still plenty of time to add world titles to the trophy cabinet.
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