By Scott Gilfoid: The middleweight division is really hurting right now in a big way in terms of the lack of talent in the division. Later this month unbeaten middleweight contender #2 WBO, #3 WBA, #4 WBC, Martin Murray (24-0-1, 10 KO’s) will be fighting undefeated #7 WBA Jorge Navarro (12-0, 10 KO’s) for the interim WBA World middleweight title on the undercard of the Ricky Hatton vs. Vyacheslav Senchenko bout at the Manchester Arena (formerly M.E.N Arena), in Manchester, Lancashire, United Kingdom.

The Murray-Navarro fight is nothing, because it’s just an interim strap and the sanctioning bodies hand those things out like candy. But what’s important here is that the winner of the Murray vs. Navarro fight will be fighting WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (50-2-2, 28 KO’s) on April 17th in Martinez’s birth country Argentina where he wants to stage a fight in front of a ton of his loyal boxing fans. He seems to think that he can attract a lot of them and that remains to be seen. Martinez now lives in Oxnard, California.

I’m not too high on the 30-year-old Murray, but I got to him an almost 100 percent chance of beating Navarro and getting that title shot against Martinez in Argentina because Navarro gives new meaning to a fighter with an inflated resume. If you look at the guys that Navarro has fought during his 6-year pro career you’ll be hard-pressed to find any real talent there.

The best guys that Navarro has fought have been Jaime Barboza (17-7, 8 KO’s) and Jhonatan Ricar (9-4, 7 KO’s). Believe me, it goes dramatically downhill from here in terms of opposition for Navarro. I’d have to say that Murray has a really good chance of beating Navarro and locking himself into a title shot against Martinez on April 17th in Argentina.

A fight between Murray and Martinez would be a mismatch. Murray was staggered badly in his fight against the light hitting Felix Sturm last year in December in a questionable 12 round draw that Murray got in that fight. I had Sturm winning the fight because Murray hadn’t done enough to earn a decision in my eyes. Martinez will KO Murray no problem. The only way Murray will make it the distance is if he runs from Martinez.