Boxer Daniel Geale says he will 'reverse the tide' of English sporting wins against Australia when he fights

DANIEL Geale is our answer to Ashes humiliation. He's our tonic for Olympic embarrassment. For British Lions heartache.

Daniel Geale

DANIEL Geale is our answer to Ashes humiliation.

He's our tonic for Olympic embarrassment. For British Lions heartache. The fella you want standing guard when Sam Burgess next tries to go all Sergeant Squirrel on your testicles.

Yep, after some 18 months of sporting humiliation at the hands of England -- quite literally in the case of Burgess -- Geale will this Sunday climb into the oldest testing ground of them all, a boxing ring, determined to win one back for the convicts.

Only a month after sozzled Aussie opener Dave Warner tried to punish Poms in a Birmingham bar, Geale will look to finish the job when defending his IBF middleweight title against gritty Englishman Darren Barker in Atlantic City.

Not only will it be the Sydneysider's fifth defence of his prestigious middleweight belt -- a strap worn by no less than Marvin Hagler, James Toney, Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jnr -- but his debut appearance in America. One being shown by major TV network HBO too.

Yet still there's no prizes for guessing what this indigenous father-of-three, a fighter whose Old School Boxing gym has a giant Aussie flag covering the entire back wall, wants most, right?

"England has had more than its fair share of sporting good fortune,'' Geale told The Daily Telegraph last night. "But not this weekend. Come fight night I'm reversing the tide."

Across the ring, however, Barker remains as confident as you'd exepct an English fast bowler pushing in from the fence.

"We got you on the Lions Tour and we're doing you in The Ashes,'' the middleweight fired. "Maybe after I beat Daniel Geale you can start looking to rebuild Australian sport."

And if you reckon that's not bad enough, we then had Barker's manager, a smooth talking British Bulldog named Eddie Hearn, get in on the act too.

"It's simple,'' the promoter oozed. "Everyone thought the Lions Tour was going to be a close run thing. It wasn't . "Then everyone thought The Ashes was going to be close run thing. It wasn't.

"We gave it to you in both sports and now, still, you're all saying Geale versus Barker is going to be close too. C'mon. All the pressure is on Daniel to impress in front of the Americans, in front of HBO. Darren Barker wins the fight."

Joined by wife Sheena and their three children in Atlantic City late yesterday, Geale is determined to produce a dominant display against an Englishman whose only other appearance in the States was an 11th round knockout loss against undisputed middleweight king Sergio Martinez.

Asked about the hype surrounding the fight, HBO's Peter Nelson said: "Americans are very excited about Daniel Geale and we believe his busy style, coupled with the person he is outside the ring, can definitely make him a big name here in the US.

"Right now, the middleweight division is entering a golden period with names like Martinez, Golovkin, Chavez Junior . . . we can definitely mention Geale in the same breath if he wins this fight."