Sturm-Murray: Can Murray do what Macklin so nearly did ?

By Boxing News - 12/02/2011 - Comments

Image: Sturm-Murray: Can Murray do what Macklin so nearly did ?By Peter Wells: In tonight’s big title fight another Brit travels to Germany to face the formidable World Boxing Association (WBA) Middleweight king Felix Sturm. Martin Murray is undefeated but also untested, and in Germany the challenge just seems to be that bit to big.

Despite this i said exactly the same earlier this year when Matthew Macklin made the same trip to Germany and almost pulled off one of the upsets of the year, and myself and many others had Macklin as the winner.

Macklin though had fought higher level opposition going into that fight and some believed including Felix, that he’d taken the Birmingham man too lightly. The question is at 32 could he make the same mistake? Is he past his prime and at this stage of his career is he looking ahead to one big payday against the other elite middleweights?

Neither are big punchers so the judges will be likely the one’s deciding the winner and any close rounds are guaranteed to go in favour of the home fighter.

Murray has some good skills but one wonders whether his lack of head movement will cost him dear, as the straight jab followed by the right hand could become all to easy for Sturm to land.

Sturm will cover up for the early parts of the fight, Murray may be cautious in wasting energy early on, but can nick the majority of the first half of the fight. Sturms jab though will cause Murray serious problems and if he needs, he can be light on his feet. There shouldn’t be any controversy here though as Sturm will pull away at the end to take a comfortable points victory.



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