World champion Felix Sturm goes into Saturday’s middleweight unification bout dreaming of adding the IBF title to his WBA crown, but Australia’s Daniel Geale is out to wreck his plans.
Geale puts his IBF middleweight title on the line against 33-year-old Sturm, the WBA super world middleweight champion, when they meet in Oberhausen.
The 31-year-old Geale returns to Germany having defeated Sebastian Sylvester in May 2011 to win the belt he has defended twice.
The winner of Saturday’s bout will walk away with both belts and Sturm, who has held the WBA title since 2007, says he has been dreaming of this chance.
“This fight has been a dream, a wish, for me since a long, long time,” said the German, whose two defeats came at the hands of Oscar de la Hoya in 2004 in Las Vegas and Spain’s Javier Castillejo in 2006.
“Now I’m here and my dream is coming true. “I will do my best to impose my tactics on him and make him pay for his mistakes. “He is a great fighter but I’m quite sure that I’ll win on Saturday night.
“I’m really happy that we found someone in Daniel Geale who did not hesitate to take this fight. It is the biggest of my career.”
Sturm has not impressed recently: his June 2011 win over Matthew Macklin came only after a split decision, which had the Briton fuming, while he drew with Britain’s Martin Murray last December.
