I MADE a mistake – once – by saying Matthew Macklin did not have the armoury to step up a vital gear or two.

He was unlikely, in my view, to go the extra distance to win. I got it wrong and forecast he would lose his challenge for the British middleweight title against champion and fellow Brummie Wayne Elcock.

He raised his game, okay, and knocked Elcock out in the third. Macklin took my apology very well.

My reasoning was that he had switched trainers yet again and had been with Joe Gallagher in Manchester for a mere three weeks – not enough time to get into the groove or the right shape to do the job.

I will not be making the same mistake tonight when Macklin challenges long-standing champion Felix Sturm for the WBA middleweight title here in Cologne, planning to become the first Birmingham boxer to win a world title.

Three have tried and failed. I was in Houston in 1981 when Smethwick-born Pat Cowdell was given a split decision when losing to the Mexican legend Salvador Sanchez.

Four years later he had another shot at the belt in Birmingham against Azumah Nelson but was knocked out in the first round. I was there, too.

I missed Robert McCracken’s challenge against American Keith Holmes for the WBC belt at Wembley in 2000. He unfortunately came off second best when the referee stopped the bout in the 11th round

Then Wayne Elcock went to Basel in Switzerland to challenge IBF champion Arthur Abraham in 2007. I was there, too, and that one didn’t end happily, either, with Elcock being stopped in the fifth.

No joy in Houston (or Birmingham). None in Basel, so I am hoping it will be third time lucky tonight. My pen is poised.

Can Macklin do it? Most of the pundits are saying perhaps, but unlikely. The job he has taken on is a step too far.

Sturm is a quality world champion. He has ruled the WBA division for almost a decade.

His record, which includes 15 world title fights, is massively impressive. This outing tonight on his home soil should be a stroll in the park. He is a hot favourite to retain his crown.

And that’s just on the boxing front. Elcock warns of the disrupting tactics from his own experience of challenging for a world title with German promoters.

He said: “I was in Basel for a week before the fight and I was asked to go here there and everywhere. I did it all because it was for the benefit of the promotion. It didn’t seem to matter.