The odds are firming that Daniel Geale's next defence of his IBF world title will be against Victorian challenger Sam Soliman.
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Geale had talks with his manager Bill Treacy and US-based promoter Gary Shaw earlier this week and an announcement on his next fight is expected within a few days.
``A fight with Sam Soliman was one of the things we discussed and there were a few other options as well,'' Geale said.
``There are still a few things to work out, but we're moving along.''
Soliman earned the right to fight Geale when he scored a unanimous decision over former WBA middleweight title holder Felix Sturm in Germany.
Soliman claimed on his return to Australia that a world title fight with Geale had already been locked in and he was just waiting for the date.
He indicated the fight would be in his home city of Melbourne sometime in May.
But yesterday Geale discounted Melbourne as the venue if the fight did go ahead.
``It won't be in Melbourne, I prefer Sydney, but there are a couple of other places as well including Brisbane,'' he said.
Geale fought Anthony Mundine at the Sydney Entertainment Centre last month before a crowd estimated at 9000.
``I haven't heard what the official crowd was but the suggestion was about 9000 which was good''.
Geale has the option of either defending his title in the US or Europe but said one of the lures in taking on Soliman was that he wouldn't have to relinquish his IBF belt.
Under IBF rules Geale has 90 days to fulfil a mandatory defence and Soliman became the number one challenger after his defeat of Sturm.
``I don't want to be stripped of another belt by not fighting him.''
Geale unified the middleweight division when he defeated Sturm last September to hold both the WBA and IBF titles, but was later relieved of the WBA belt when he decided to fight Mundine in preference of Russian challenger Gennady Golovkin.
Geale said he was ready to return to full training after his January 30 demolition of Anthony Mundine.
In the meantime he has had early starts each morning accompanying his youngest daughter Lilyarna to her first kindergarten classes.
``I'm getting used to getting up early,'' he said.