Brandon Rios refuses to shake hands with John Murray, says he sees fear in his eyes

By Boxing News - 12/02/2011 - Comments

Image: Brandon Rios refuses to shake hands with John Murray, says he sees fear in his eyesBy Scott Gilfoid: WBA World lightweight champion Brandon Rios (28-0-1, 21 KO’s) rejected British challenger John Murray’s attempt at an appeasement handshake during Thursday’s press conference to promote their fight on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Rios and Murray came eye to eye and you could see how scared looking Murray was. I mean he looked like he was staring at a mean dog that was about to bite him. If Murray wasn’t wearing such thick clothes, I bet you might have saw Murray shaking. Poor Murray was left with his hand out in front of him and he looked bad when Rios shook his head in disgust.

Rios said this about the Murray meeting as quoted by Ringtv “I saw fear in his eyes. That’s why it’s got me so hyped up, because right now, I hate him. I don’t want no parts of him. We’re going to fight. I’m ready to battle. I’m not ready to be your friend. I’m not here to shake your hand.”

How sad. Murray is sinking to the level of appeasement. We’ve seen this kind of thing before with guys like Shane Mosley touching gloves with Manny Pacquiao after every round. It’s like he’s saying ‘Take it easy on me.’ It’s going to be brutal night for Murray. He’s going to get battered and there’s not a whole lot he can do about it. But I really don’t see the intimidation as being necessary for Rios. He’s going to win no matter he does. He doesn’t need to waste time trying to scare the wits out of Murray. It’s a mismatch right out of the gate and Rios could shake Murray’s hand all day long, hug him, tell jokes, whatever, and it wouldn’t matter. At the end of the day, Rios is going to bludgeon Murray into submission and this fight is going to be a terrible mismatch.

But it is interesting to see Murray trying the old hand shake bit. I’m really disappointed in that. I thought Murray would be spitting venom at Rios, trying to show contempt to throw Rios off his game. But no, it’s the old handshake bit.



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