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

Daniel Geale v Darren Barker

The Middleweight division in recent months has really managed to grab people's attention. Of course when a division has some serious punchers that's what happens and with Gennady Golovkin, Peter Quillin and Curtis Stevens the division has a trio of big punchers.

Outside from the 3 big bangers however the division has pretty much everything else you can ask for in a division. It has boxers, swarmers, pressure fighters and plenty of exciting match ups, including this Saturday's IBF Middleweight title fight between the defending champion Daniel Geale (29-1, 15) and challenger Darren Barker (25-1, 16).

Australian champion Geale is one of the sports nice guys. A humble, hard working fighter who wasn't blessed with power, speed, reflexes or any other special quality other than dedication to become better. This dedication has seen him develop one of the sports bests engines and a true fighters mentality not afraid to fight on the road or against good fighters.

"Real Deal" Geale may well have fought 28 of his previous 30 contests in his native Australia but has twice traveled to, and won in, Germany taking on fighters with a reputation of getting favourable decisions their way in the shape of Felix Sturm and Sebastian Sylvester. Against both of the German based fighters Geale traveled away and worked relentlessly to take decision over hometown fighters in impressive performances.

Like the champion "Dazzling" Darren Barker is a genuine and honest professional. He was born with more natural talent than Geale and often looks incredibly classy in the ring against the lower tier fighters which make up many of his 25 victories, though when he's stepped up he has generally been able to move up a gear.

Although Barker is best known for his "dull" performance en route to a loss to Sergio Martinez he has taken that loss on board and developed as a result. His usually reserved technical boxing skills are still there though he's added some killer instinct to his fighting and has scored stoppage victories over both Kerry Hope, a former European champion, and Simone Rotolo. Although Rotolo officially retired with an injured hand it was obvious that Barker was going to stop him sooner or later with the offensive mindset he had.

As mentioned already Barker is the better technical fighter. His career has been plagued by injuries to various body parts but his talent is clearly there. When fighting Geale however you need more than just technical skills. Geale is a faster moving fighter who throws in bunches, in fact he can throw in bunches of bunches. If you try to out box him with singles, as both Sylvester and Sturm did, you'll simply be outworked by quite a margin.

To beat Geale you don't necessarily need to match his amazing work rate but you do need to either be busy or have the power to blast him out, which nobody has been able to do this far, and maybe only Golovkin could actually do it. As a result Barker will need to be busier than usual, he'll need to show the aggressive streak which has been evident in his last few fights and hope that his tank holds up for 12 rounds, something that has been a question mark over Barker since he struggled over the line against Affif Belghecham.

I can see Geale getting to set the pace of the bout and after it's incredibly hard to see him losing just because of his work rate. Barker will have his moments and rounds due to his very classy work but the busy action of Geale will see him over the line safely.

Prediction-Geale UD12