By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten lightweight contender John Murray (29-0, 17 KO’s) is really looking past this Saturday’s fight against Ukrainian Andriy Kudryavtsev (34-7, 15 KO’s) at the Robin Park Centre, Wigan, Lancashire. Murray, 25, is hoping to fight the November 27th clash between WBA/WBO lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez and WBO lightweight interim champion Michael Katsidis. My advice is for Murray to stick to the guys that he’s been fighting and be happy that he can hold onto his unbeaten record for a little while longer.

I don’t see Murray as measuring up against either Katsidis or Marquez. Murry is likely to end up getting blown out quickly against either of these guys, just like Kevin Mitchell was slapped down when he tried to step up and take on Katisdis recently.

Murray is just too slow of hand and foot. He’s really slow. I actually think Mitchell would easily beat him. Murray is good enough to beat Kudryavtsev on Saturday, but it’s not going to be any fight for him. Kudryavtsev, 33, is going to take Murray deep and really push him. But that’s as far as Murray goes. Guys like Brandon Rios, Katsidis, Marquez, Robert Guerrero, Humberto Soto, Miguel Vasquez, Ali Funeka, Miguel Acosta, Mike Alvarado, Juan Diaz, Antonio DeMarco, Marco Antonio Barrera, Urbano Antillon, Anthony Peterson, Paulus Moses and Mitchell are all a step above Murray in my view.

I see Murray getting slaughtered against any of them. I hope Marquez or Katsidis don’t waste their sweet time with Murray after they finish fighting. I don’t want to see Murray get destroyed in two or three rounds. I want to see Katsidis and Marquez matched against good lightweights, not ones with inflated records and inflated rankings. I wouldn’t mind Murray looking for a fight against the Katsidis-Mitchell winner if Murray had actually fought some good guys, but he’s been matched pretty carefully up to this point and has not been put in with the fighters that I listed above.

I consider those the best fighters in the lightweight division and for some reason Murray hasn’t been put in with them. I can kind of see why after looking at Murray’s last fight against Gary Buckland in May. Murray looks too slow and limited.