By Phil D. Jay

IBF middleweight champion Daniel Geale (27-1, 15KOs) remains on board for his unification battle with WBO title holder Dmity Pirog (19-0, 15KOs) despite a drop in his originally stated purse for the fight on August 25th in Washington.

The 31 year-old, who has made two successful defences since claiming the title in May last year, has to first await the outcome of Pirog’s May 1st contest against challenger Nobuhiro Ishida before he can finalize the two-belt title fight.

"Pirog is going to be a tough fight," Geale told themercury.com.au. Fighting over there, things may be a little different so we'll see how it goes.

“He's a little bit taller than me (7cm) but he does like coming forward a bit and that makes the fight a little bit interesting."

Geale has been promised a purse thought to be around $250,000 and although the first offer brought to the table was much higher, The Aussie has decided to continue on with the fight, which takes place in Spokane.

"It is a pretty small venue. They just believe they are going to make the money out of pay-per-view sales," Geale explained.

"Originally they were talking big dollars but they backed out of that mainly because Pirog and I aren't American and haven't really proven ourselves in the US yet.

"I can see where they are coming from but it is a bit disappointing given it is a unification fight.

"My management are a little bit up in the air about it but I just said 'nope, bugger it, let's do it',” he added.

Phil D. Jay covers boxing for worldboxingnews.net