By Scott Gilfoid: Former world title challenger Martin Murray (28-1-1, 12 KOs) will be back in the ring in two months to face #8 WBC Domenico Spada (38-5, 19 KOs) on October 25th at the Salle des etoiles, Monte Carlo, Monaco.
The soon to be 32-year-old Murray will have his WBC Silver middleweight strap on the line for the fight. Murray will be defending the strap for the first time since winning it last June in beating Max Bursak by a 12 round decision.
It’s hard to know what Murray’s end game is in defending the Silver belt. Is this the ultimate achievement for him? Murray’s ranked at #1 WBC, #3 IBF, and he should have gone for a fight against WBA champion Gennady Golovkin last year when he was interested in fighting him. But instead of fighting Golovkin, Murray fought Sergey Khomitsky, Ishmael Tetteh and Bursak. Great fights, those were not.
Murray did get a title shot against a shot looking WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez, but he ended up losing the for lack of an offense. Instead of going after the hobbled Martinez, who went into the fight with a torn up right knee, Murray hid behind a high crab shell guard for the entire 12 rounds.
It was such a waste of an opportunity for Murray. He fought more like a sparring partner than a title challenger, and it wasn’t surprising that he lost. As bad as Martinez looked on that night, I think most of the top 10 contenders would have beaten him in that fight just by showing up. Murray lost because he didn’t let his hands go and because he fought in a timid manner.
I’m still trying to figure out why Murray is facing #8 WBC Spada, because the guy was recently knocked out by Marco Antonio Rubio in the 10th round just four months ago in April of this year. Why fight a guy that was just knocked out. I’m not sure how the sanctioning bodies work for the WBC Silver strap, but I don’t know why they would sanction a fight between Murray and Spada as any kind of a title fight with Spada having been knocked out recently. It’s baffling to say the least.
At any rate, Spada will be turning 34 next month, and he recently beat some guy named Nikola Matic (10-24) by a 6 round decision earlier this month. The record tells you all you need to know about Matic. Spada has previous losses to Sebastian Zbik [twice] and Darren Barker.
The WBC has Murray ranked #1 at 160. He’s obviously not going to be getting a shot at WBC middleweight champ Miguel Cotto. That’s not happening.
Murray also isn’t likely to get a shot at Saul “Canelo” Alvarez if he whips Cotto next year. At best, Murray might someday get a fight against Marco Antonio Rubio once Cotto and Canelo move on and leave the WBC strap vacant. The winner of the Murray-Rubio fight would likely be seen by many boxing fans as a paper champion given that Golovkin would still be around as the top guy at 160.
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