Murray deserves rematch against an ageing, over-rated Felix Sturm

By Boxing News - 12/03/2011 - Comments

Image: Murray deserves rematch against an ageing, over-rated Felix SturmBy Dallan O’ Donnell: Martin Murray last night stunned the boxing world by giving Felix Sturm the fight of his life in their WBA middleweight world title fight in Germany. Although it seemed a mismatch on paper, with Murray only having 23 fights and being a professional for just four years Murray proved everyone wrong and battled like a champion.

Sturm looked as if he would dominate the fight as he established his jab early. But in a move that was certainly not in the script for Sturm, Murray fought back hard and with his left hook working perfectly to both head and body he started to win rounds by outworking the Champion. Both boxers displayed brilliant defence work throughout the contest with not many clean punches landing for either fighter a Knockout was never really on the cards.

When it seemed as though Sturm was about to take control, stepping in more assertively with his jab and throwing the right hand to follow the opposite happened and Murray produced his own burst of quick combinations that often backed Sturm up and he would continue to outwork Sturm for the whole round. Murray had only been 12 rounds once before in his career but he came of age and showed he deserved to be at world class level. It seemed to have been Murray’s fight coming to the final round and again he outworked Sturm in the last round. Sturm did produce a flurry in the last 10 seconds but in my opinion it came too late.

It was a close encounter but I had Murray by a round. The judges scorecard was however fair, despite the shocking decision by one judge to give four rounds to Sturm. Many would say a draw was a fair result but Murray deserved the victory and not to have a draw on his record , although he did manage to keep his unbeaten record. Matthew Macklin was the first fighter to prove that Sturm was the weakest of the middleweight champions when he lost a controversial split decision loss. The question has to be asked how would Sturm fair against the likes of Sergio Martinez, and the answer would surely be not very well. Murray will surely be offered a rematch as Macklin was but the difference will be that Murray will jump at the opportunity unlike Macklin. Follow me on Twitter @dallan09



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