Macklin will keep world title dream alive by stopping Albert says Moore

FORMER Irish champion Jamie Moore has backed Matthew Macklin to come back with a bang on Saturday.

The ‘Tipperary Tornado’ fights live on Sky in his home town of Birmingham in a bid to prolong his career and keep alive his World title dream.

Macklin’s former foe turned trainer believes ‘Mack The Knife’ should take care of Ferenc Albert inside the distance in his first fight since losing to Sebastian Hieland in Dublin last November.

“Ferenc Albert, his opponent, has a jerky style which means he should take Matt a few rounds. He has a lot of lateral movement but shouldn’t pose too many problems. Early doors he’ll be fresh because of who he’s boxing against but he shouldn’t hear the final bell,” Moore told Sky Sports.

Retirement was mentioned as a possibility after Macklin was stopped in the 3Arena on November. At the time, however Moore urged the 32 year old not to make any rushed decisions, suggesting he felt Macklin was over trained not shot going into the World title eliminator.

Moore, who beat Ciaran Healy to claim the Irish strap in the Basketball Arena, is happy to see the three time World title challenger return and believes he could get a four tilt.

“I’d be worried if Matt spoke about boxing at a lower level because that means he’s not confident in what he’s got left. But he’s talking about Andy Lee and Danny Jacobs which is a real possibility if he comes through this weekend. Matt is a name in America, he has six fights on the trot over there, so he’ll always have options.

“His last fight was a heavy loss at the vital part of his career and Matt took some time off to assess his situation and needed to decide whether he wanted to continue. Was he still hungry enough? He’s now having an eight-rounder just to knock some rust off.”

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