Darren Barker v Felix Sturm

If you ask me I'd say one of the luckiest men to win a world title this year has been Britain's "Dazzling" Darren Barker (26-1, 16) who took a very debatable decision over Daniel Geale to claim the IBF title a few months back. The obvious move after that was an immediate rematch between the two though unfortunately that never happened and instead Barker's first defense will come against Germany's Felix Sturm (38-3-2-1, 17).

For years Sturm was criticised for taking easy defenses, claiming controversial victories and generally derided by the boxing public. Over the past two years however he has suffered a loss to Daniel Geale and a loss (later over-turned to a no contest) against Sam Soliman. This suggests that even the German fans are bored of him and the judges are no longer "in his pocket" as some have suggest.

At his beat Sturm was a jabbing machine. He was never be a big puncher, he'd never knock fighters clean out but he did have the uncanny ability to land his exceptional jab at will almost dismantling opponents with the crisp clean jab. It was this jab that helped him hold the WBA Middleweight hostage in Germany for years though unfortunately for him he ran into a determined and busy Geale who did enough to force the judges to give him the win.

Sturm is no longer able to keep up the busy jab like he did in his prime. It's still an excellent jab but his work rate has dropped off and a busy fighter like Geale has been able to make him look awful. In fact Geale, Matthew Macklin and Martin Murray have all made Sturm look second rate.

With that in mind I need to favour Barker to retain his title here. The Englishman might be going over the Germany but he's a younger fighter who can dig deep, has shown an improved ability to go 12 rounds and looks to be fighting at his best. Sure I felt he came second to Geale but that was genuinely close, this however won't be.

In terms of the jabbing game Barker will be able to hold his own with Sturm who turns 35 next month, in terms of the inside game I favour Barker and whilst he certainly won't dominate the fight he'll do enough to take a clear but competitive decision by around 8 rounds to 4.

Although a rematch in the UK has been signed in to the contract I'd imagine if Barker wins here we won't be seeing the rematch here, instead the Geale rematch is more likely and certainly makes for a more competitive bout than a do-over of this one.

Prediction-Barker UD12