By Scott Gilfoid: WBC middleweight Sergio Martinez (50-2-2, 28 KO’s) appears to have the perfect opponent to fight in his first defense of his WBC title on April 27th in Argentina. The 37-year-old Martinez will be facing Britain’s 30-year-old Murray (25-0-1, 11 KO’s), a fighter with little real power and a bad tendency to mix it up. Murray has unbeaten record filled with soft 2nd tier opposition.
I couldn’t come up with the more perfect tune-up opponent if I tried for Martinez to get ready for his rematch against former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in September 2013. Murray is a fighter that has spent so much of his career facing fodder in the UK and he’s not been exposed to quality guys like Martinez or even Chavez Jr.
The only real halfway decent opponent that Murray has faced in his five-year pro career is former WBA middleweight champion Felix Sturm. Murray and Sturm fought to a 12 round draw a year ago in Germany. I’ve seen that fight several times and I still can’t fathom what the judges were thinking in giving Murray a draw out of that fight because I had Sturm winning by four rounds.
Here I’ve broken down the intangibles for the fight:
• Power: Martinez has a big advantage in this area because Murray can’t really punch at all
• Speed: This is another area where Martinez has a huge advantage of the slower Murray. It’s not even close in this area because Martinez is so much faster than Murray.
• Experience: It kind of goes without saying that Martinez is the much more experienced fighter of the two. He’s faced a number world class opponents, whereas Murray has faced on Sturm.
• Talent: Martinez gets the nod in this area as well. He’s a lot more skilled than Murray overall.
• Ring intelligence: While I think Murray is a smart fighter, he’s not in the same class as Martinez when it comes to ring smarts.
Prediction:
I think it’s pretty obvious that Martinez will win this fight, and I can’t see it being anything other than by a vicious knockout in possibly two or three rounds. Murray will walk into a shot and get knocked out by Martinez.
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