Macklin able to draw inspiration from Andy Lee ahead of ring return

THE boxing press was full of Matthew Macklin’s career obituaries after his stoppage reverse to Sebastian Heiland last November.

It was a case of one battle too far for the respected warrior and three time World title challenger. Despite the fact ‘Mack The Knife’ refused to rush into any retirement decisions a career that seen three World title challenges as well as British, European and Irish title wins was being talked about in the past sense.

Considering the manner of the defeat such talk was inevitable and even understandable. In boxing like most sports your only as good as your last performance, however the in the fight game  you can have a long wait before you get to amend a below par display.

Macklin hopes to prove he still has what it takes to compete with victory in Birmingham tonight and stresses his last performance was a result of burn out and not because he passed a sell by date.

The 32 year old also stressed he has drawn inspiration from domestic rival Andy Lee claiming the Limerick is proof you can put some average performances behind him to claim a World title.

“Look at Andy Lee. He has been a rival of mine, things get said, but I like Andy, he is a good fella – and I was proud to see him go on achieve what he achieved.

“Like myself he had a couple of indifferent performances. We only look at it from the surface but he knows all the different variables. Did he over train? Was he not fit enough? Was he Ill? was he injured? Could he get up for the fight? There are so many different things that can affect how you perform and truly on the fighter cares enough to look into it deep enough to know why,” Macklin told IFL TV.

“Everyone else just says ‘ah he lost to him he is finished’, I do that myself. So Andy is an inspiration to see where he came from to where he is now. He won a majority decision out in Denmark against a journey man, then he knocked out John Jackson, who isn’t a world beater but not a bad fighter, in a fight he was comfortably loosing.

“He pulled it out of the bag against Korobov, but then against Quillin he boxed lovely and he could have got it bar the second knock down. Boxing is a funny game. Luckly for me with my name being what it is I might not have to put a run of wins together. If I get a win here (Saturday) I might be just one fight away or straight back into a World title fight.”