By Ben Carey
Matthew Macklin is eyeing a showdown with Limerick southpaw Andy Lee should he add the European title to his British and Irish middleweight belts in Manchester next month. The Brian Peters managed Macklin, who has recently inked a promotional deal with Ricky Hatton, will challenge Finland’s Amin Asikainen for the vacant European crown at the Manchester Velodrome on September 25.
Victory for Macklin could set up an exciting all-Irish clash with former Olympian Lee who has won three fights on the spin since surprisingly losing his unbeaten record to Brian Vera following a seventh round stoppage defeat last March.
“It would be the biggest all Irish fight for a long, long time and to have a major belt like a European title on the line would make it a massive occasion. Andy’s a good fighter and a decent lad but business is business at the end of the day and if I’m European champion then I think it’s a fight that makes real sense,” suggested Macklin.
A fight which would make more sense, well, at least in the eyes of many boxing fans, would be for Macklin to square off against the unbeaten Commonwealth champion Darren Barker in a throwback triple title showdown. Macklin and Barker were slated to meet on 5 September only for Macklin to pull out when his European title opportunity came knocking (an understandable yet frustrating decision for the purists). Macklin, however, would seemingly prefer to entertain Lee in the first instance.
“A defence in Ireland against Andy Lee would be great but for now I’m just concentrating on winning the title,” revealed Macklin. “Asikainen is a world class fighter, he first won the European title back in 2006 so he’s very experienced at this level. He’s currently rated number 4 (actually it’s 5 – Ed) in the world with the IBF (the title is currently vacant – Ed) so I know that beating him would put me within touching distance of a shot at the world title.”
With home advantage, and on the back of a career best performance which saw him overpower Wayne Elcock in three rounds to wrestle the British middleweight title in March, Macklin will start a narrow favourite against Asikainen. The Finn has an impressive 26-2 (17) record but at 33 his best days appear to be behind him.
Asikainen was stopped in seven by Khoren Gevor in an successful bid to regain the European middleweight title last November. His only other defeat saw him halted in the eleventh round by Sebastian Sylvester in June 2007. Asikainen had previously stopped Sylvester to capture the European title 12 months prior and went on to make two successful defences. Asikainen has fought once since losing to Gevor, an eight-round points win over Valentin Ochoa in April.
