Middleweight titleholder Felix Sturm will defend his title against Matthew Macklin on July 2 in Sturm?s hometown of Cologne, Germany, AFP reported.
Sturm (35-2-1, 15 knockouts) will be fighting for the first time since February, when he scored a seventh-round TKO over Ronald Hearns in the ninth defense of the WBA belt the 32-year-old won in April 2007 by stopping Javier Castillejo. This will be his 14th consecutive fight on German soil.
“This will be one of my toughest fights, because I know I can only win against Macklin when I am in top form,” Sturm told AFP, the French news agency.
Macklin (28-2, 19 KOs), of Birmingham, England, will be facing his first-ever high-profile opponent.
