10 Seconds Cost Macklin 4 Rounds?

Felix Sturm successfully defended his WBA crown in Germany last night but the question of the day must be HOW?. Matthew Macklin set out from the first bell ‘once they got the bell to work that is’ like a man possessed showing not only to Sturm but the rest of the world that he meant business. Macklin bossed the first round with big body shots and good combinations upstairs whish left Sturm a little red faced when he returned to his corner at the end of the first.

Felix Sturm however being the champion that he is came out sharper and started to find success behind the jab but Macklin answered with a lot more, both men literally standing toe to toe and head to head for the best part of the entire 12 rounds with Macklin not allowing Sturm to find much space at all. The pace Matthew set from early on certainly caused concern for the later rounds as Macklin has been criticized in the past for his conditioning.

Round four was the stand out round of the early exchanges with both fighters giving it their all and really got the crowd going for both home and away fans, the noise was electric. Sturm’s jab was doing it’s job well but still Macklin found answers. The pace of the fight throughout was to be admired as Macklin barely slowed and Sturm finding his feet in the middle round and arguments can be made in both corners about who won what round.

Sturm was economical not wasting too much and rocking Macklin’s head back with an uppercut and strong jabs. Macklin for me controlled the fight from the centre of the ring in every round for me but the eye catching punches were coming from Sturm. Into the last round we went and Both fighters as you would expect in any final round got their second wind, I had Macklin winning the round until the very last 10 seconds of the fight when Sturm decided I need to dig deep and felt this fight was slipping away. A flurry of huge punches landed from Sturm and rocked Macklin and it was at this point I thought “that 10 seconds has won the fight”.

I must admit I had Sturm up by 2 rounds but my thinking behind was I was judging it like a home judge would have seen it and unless Macklin had literally killed Sturm then he was never going to get the result. Maybe a dozen eye catching shots in 12 rounds was enough in the judges decision. Sturm did not at all look confident returning to his corner after the fight and seemed reluctant to be raised in the air in his trainer’s shoulders.

Matthew Macklin can certainly be proud of his performance and proved a lot of doubters wrong, A rematch is said to be agreed for November. Macklin said after the fight “I won the fight, I thought I strolled the first 6 or 7, some of them were touch and go but I was still winning them on my work rate” Matthew’s work rate can not be questioned but it again depends on what you prefer, I busy fighter or a cleaner puncher.
In a fans Poll this morning on who they thought won the fight the results were 44% for Macklin 33% Sturm 22% Draw. You will have your own opinion and no one could argue as both fighters made a great fight and one we will be talking about until the rematch.

Richie Woodhall said “There’s no way Macklin lost that fight, it wasn’t as is his work rate just dipped, he maintained it” I agree with Richie and had the fight been anywhere else in the world I believe we would have crowned a new champion. Trainer Joe Gallagher was just one shy of 50 straight wins, not that Joe train’s fighters for records and has plenty of world champions in the making at his gym.

Once again judges cards are questioned as the world want to know where the 4 rounds came from for Sturm which begs the question why not just use the Olympics method of scoring? Well if we did we would not be ‘able to have these very conversations.

In hindsight Matthew Macklin can be proud of his performance last night, if Sturm is the proud champion we all believe he is then let’s get the rematch in the UK or on a neutral ground and I’m sure the result will go something like this And the NEW………….