Daniel Geale cements his Middleweight status

Can't blame him for wanting to make some easy cash after two tough wins in Germany, hes earnt it, lets hope he goes after one of the big boys next.

Ah interesting. Geale should win comfortably though

Ah yep, you're using BoxRec. Interesting- I look up boxing records on that site all the time, but I never even looked at the divisional rankings! Crazy that I didn't notice them.

Yep, Soliman held his own against Mundine in 2008. I personally wondered if he'd had been hard done by. That was before Mundine beat Geale in 2009. If anything, I'd say Sam is like a fine wine- improving with age. A bit like Stevey Milne the footballer. Whose world rankings are you using? You're right- Geale might have more to fight for if he fights overseas again. But I wonder if he's dissappointed by the relative lack of media coverage of his historic victory on Saturday? One advantage of fighting Soliman is that Geale's camp could use it to boost his profile with the Australian sporting public- Aussie vs Aussie- which could in turn lead to more endorsements and promotions here, both now and a long time into the future. Geale doesn't seem to have a lot of marketability about him, but fighting on mainland Australia against another Aussie, in a fight that Geale would be pretty confident of winning, could be a part of a strategy to become more of a household name. Then again, some of us are wondering if that confidence could end up being misplaced ;-)

Geale's camp. doesn't rate Soliman. They said as much before Geale's last fight in Hobart. But if they want to hold on to the IBF belt, they will have to fight him.

Havent seen Sams fights live this year Trav, only video footage. Dont get me wrong, theres plenty of respect for him. Yes, definately unorthodox, that stems back to his kick boxing upbringing. Lorenzo is no mug having gone 12 with Sturm two years ago, but unfortunately being ranked 49 in the world doesnt do much for ones rankings. You have to go back 5-6 years when Sam was in his early 30's when he fough Mundine and Winky Wright as world class opponents. Wood is currently the 5th ranked middleweight in Australia which again isnt going to help a boxer improve his ranking. The way I see it, now Geale has both titles, has made his name overseas, why would he risk a local fight when he can now pick and chose with the big boys?

It will be great to see two Aussies fighting for the World title. Geale has a big following in Tasmania and Soliman in Melbourne, so if the fight was to be held in either of those two places, you could guarantee a big crowd, plus of course TV rights. So whilst it wouldn't be as lucrative as fighting someone like Martinez, it would still be well worth Geale's while. Plus, Soliman is definitely a worthy contender. I'd be curious if Grafter, Flexi have seen any of his recent fights? This year Soliman has fought twice. He dominated Garth Wood (who knocked Mundine out and lost a close fight the second time they met), and he's dominated Lorenzo, who previously lost a split decision to Sylvester and went 12 rounds with Sturm. In his 3rd most recent fight, in November of last year, Soliman defeated Albert, who had gone the distance with Geale 3 months earlier. So Soliman has well and truly proven himself, fighting and clearly beating quality opponents. Yes his style is unorthodox, but then again, that makes things interesting because it always gives you a contrast in styles.

Perfect scenario would be: take Golovkins IBO belt then take on winner of N'Dam N'Jikam vs Peter Quillan fight for the WBO and then challenge Martinez/JCC Jr for the WBC and Ring championships, Go on Daniel put the cleaners through em champ.

Have to disagree Andrew. Sam is probably the fightest fighter (probably athlete) in Australia, and like Geale is a genuine bloke, however to put him up with Matinez, Chavez, Pirog, Golovkin or Murray would be a massive step back now. Les Sherrington aged 30 coming off a 12 round victory over Mexican legend Yori Boy Campas would be a better local fight now he has dropped back to middleweight. Very hard to see Geales manager Bill Traecy looking outside of these fighters unless they want a couple of easy fights first.

Fantastic work, to go to Germany twice and take the titles is immense. I wonder will Mundine come knocking? As much as I've been a fan of Mundine, Geale has shown you don't need to duck the good fighters if you're good enough. Would love to see him unify all the belts. Note that he's not the first Australian boxer to unify two globally recognised world titles in the one weight division - Kostya Tszyu did this. I've seen "first Australian-born" on a few stories.

Grafter, Agree about Soliman. Daniel has put himself into very select company beating Sturm and it now seems strange that he be forced to fight Soliman as his IBF mandatory. Now I'm not saying that he shouldn't fight him, Sam has worked hard and deserves a shot but it's lose lose for Daniel. Yes he probably wins, but he's not going to make fans fighting him and with Soliman's awkward style he likely doesn't look good doing it. Like you said also, it's great a really nice guy comes first for once. The man may or may not care about the recognition from the Aussie public, but he sure as hell deserves the money. Well done.

Very, very good fight for Geale to win Andrew. Sturm has prevously had a couple of decisions go his way, most notably a draw against Englands Martin Murray who was ringside yesterday. Martinez is fast fading from the fighter he was. I would expect Chavez to beat him in two weeks. He is way over the odds at 6/4. All respect to Sam Soliman, but to say he is a worthy No 1 contender is a little over the top. Who knows, would Daniel want to right a certain loss that he had several years ago? Really pleased to see one of the most genuine blokes in Australian boxing doing it overseas against some of the best in the world in their own backyards.