By Scott Gilfoid: With WBA Super World middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (31-0, 28 KOs) unable to get WBC 160 pound champion Miguel Cotto or former WBA/WBC 154lb champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez to step inside the ring to face him, Golovkin will need to be satisfied with facing #1 WBC Martin Murray (29-1-1, 12 KOs) on February 21st in Monte Carlo, Monaco.
Golovkin sees Murray as a good stay busy fight to keep him from getting rust while he waits for the Cotto-Canelo fight to take place. Once that fight is over with, Golovkin hopes that he can fight the winner. More likely he’ll be ignored by the Canelo-Cotto winner, especially if it’s Cotto, because his promoter Bob Arum is already talking about wanting to match Cotto against Tim Bradley in his next fight.
“Murray is a strong guy and he had a good win,” Golovkin said to ESPN.com. “Domenico Spada is an ugly opponent to fight. He has a style that is not the easiest to fight against but (Murray) did his job and won the fight. I think this fight with Murray is a good fight for us.”
Murray is actually the perfect fight for Golovkin, because Murray does a lot of covering up, and he can’t punch like some of the guys that Golovkin has faced in the past. Murray is mainly just a really big guy who does a good job over covering up, holding, and taking the big shots that do get through his guard. He’s got a decent jab, but he’s not powerful or dangerous in any way.
As we saw in Murray’s recent win Domenico Spada last Saturday night, Murray can be dangerous with his head if it comes in contact with you. Spada was cut over both eyes in the fight, which led to the bout being halted in the 7th round due to the bleeding. Golovkin will have to be watchful at all times if he doesn’t want to get sliced to ribbons from an accidental head-butt by Murray.
“We couldn’t get (Julio Cesar) Chavez Jr., Miguel Cotto or Canelo (Alvarez) to fight us next,” Golovkin said. “We have to wait until after the (likely) Cotto-Canelo fight is done, so Murray is the best available opponent for me.”
Murray is the highest rated opponent for Golovkin in terms of his resume, but I’m not sure you can call him the best. He’s someone that will give Golovkin some rounds due to Murray’s defensive style of fighting. He keeps his high guard up all the time to protect this head, which makes it difficult to knock him out. However, Murray’s high guard will leave his body totally unprotected in this fight, and that will enable Golovkin to tee off on him with body shots.
I expect to see Golovkin knock Murray out with a body shot by the 4th or 5th rounds. Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez will likely have him focusing entirely on attacking the body of Murray, because that’s really the best way for him to beat him. He’s not going to be able to land a lot of head-shots with Murray hiding behind his clamshell guard for the entire fight.
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