Matthew Macklin looking for another world title chance at 154 pounds

Matthew Macklin is a former British and European middleweight champion, but the veteran fighter has never quite gotten it done in three chances to win a world title. In 2011, he lost a controversial split decision in Germany to Felix Sturm. Nine months later, he was stopped in 11 rounds by Sergio Martinez. And in 2013, Gennady Golovkin thrashed him in three.

Now, Macklin is hoping a drop back down to junior middleweight for the first time in almost a decade will be the path to finally achieving world title glory. The 33-year-old faces Jason Welborn this Saturday on Sky Sports.

Macklin tells Sky that he'd "been thinking about moving down for a while," and says that his 2014 loss to Javier Maciel left him wondering if he'd passed his prime. That is still realistically an open case, even after a pair of victories this year over weaker competitors.

Macklin (33-6, 22 KO) winning a world title as a junior middleweight would be an upset at this stage of his career. Dropping down in weight is never easy, but particularly as a fighter ages, and Macklin hasn't made this weight since 2006, when he lost a war of a fight to Jamie Moore. That performance told Macklin he should move up. His most recent loss told him to move back down, but has too much time gone by for him to effectively make that weight and fight well?

Saturday will be the first test. His two fights this year have both been as a middleweight, and while Welborn (17-3, 6 KO) is certainly no top fighter, he may be decent enough that if Macklin physically struggles, he can exploit that. Macklin doesn't necessarily have to lose this fight to get a wake-up call, either. Realistically, if he seriously struggles to beat Welborn, there's a problem.

Do you see Macklin getting into the race at 154, or is it too late for him?