By Scott Gilfoid: IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovin (27-0, 24 KO’s) is interested in facing Britain’s #1 WBA, #5 WBC, #10 IBF, Martin Murray (25-1-1, 11 KO’s) next, according to Sky Sports. Unfortunately, there reportedly hasn’t been any word from Murray’s team whether they want that fight.
Additionally, there are questions whether Murray could get a visa to travel to the U.S if he were to agree to the fight. Obviously, Golovkin isn’t going to travel to the UK just to fight one of his contenders.
HBO wants to televise Golovkin’s next fight, but I’m not so certain they’d be keen on the idea of taking their entire crew to the UK for a Golovkin-Murray fight. It’s probably not a big enough of a fight for that kind of expense and ordeal.
Murray was beaten in his last fight by WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez by a 12 round unanimous decision last April in Argentina, and that makes it even less interesting to put in a great deal of effort to jump through hoops to put on a Golovkin vs. Murray fight.
It probably would be a decent fight if Murray can travel to the U.S to make the fight happen, but if Golovkin has to travel to the UK to take optional title defense, I don’t see it as being worth it. Golovkin would be better off trying to lure another Brit, if that’s what his team wants, like Darren Barker or even Billy Joe Saunders.
I think Saunders is about as good as Murray and it might make for an interesting fight. At least with Saunders, he throws a lot of punches, so you get that. He doesn’t just cover up 24/7 like Murray tends to do.
I think Golovkin would slaughter Murray because he just covers ups and gives his opponents opportunities to land shots. Sergio Martinez isn’t the body puncher that Golovkin is, so he couldn’t take advantage of Murray covering up like a sparring partner for 12 rounds in their fight last April, but Golovkin definitely would. If Murray covered up like that against Golovkin, he’d get nailed with a hard body shot and likely knocked out.
Golovkin vs. Murray would probably be a pretty dull fight for Americans, and about the same as Golovkin’s recent mismatches against Grzegorz Proksa and Gabriel Rosado. I think Murray brings less to the table than those guys because he doesn’t throw a lot of punches and just mainly covers up. It would be a one-sided beat down with Murray just taking shots until an especially big one to the body knocks the wind out of him and he’s counted out. I don’t think HBO would get good ratings numbers from a fight like that.
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