Martin Murray needs a steel chin to survive against Golovkin

By Boxing News - 12/27/2014 - Comments

golovkin456(Photo credit: Abel Sanchez) By Scott Gilfoid: Martin Murray (29-1-1, 12 KOs) is ranked high by the WBA and WBC boxing organizations, but he’s going to need more than an inflated ranking in order to survive the full 12 rounds against WBA Super World middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (31-0, 28 KOs) on February 21st at the Salle des etoiles, Monte Carlo, Monaco.

Since Murray, #1 WBC, #5 WBA, doesn’t have much power to speak of, it means that he’s going to be forced to go the full 12 rounds if he wants to beat Golovkin. The only way Murray can beat Golovkin is by out-boxing him over the course of the fight and win by a 12 round decision.

Unfortunately for Murray, he’s going to need to be able to take Golovkin’s best head and body shots for the full 12 round fight if he wants to win, and that’s going to be extremely difficult to do. Even if Murray fights in the same safety first manner that he did in his fight against former WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez in April of 2013.

It was a winnable fight for Murray because Martinez injured his right knee in training and he came into the fight with his knee still giving him problems.

Martinez further was hampered when he injured his left hand punching Murray on top of the head. In other words, Murray was facing a guy with one hand and one good knee, and yet he still couldn’t beat him because he failed to let his hands go the way he needed to in order to beat Martinez.

The major question is will Murray play it safe and just look to survive the full 12 rounds by hiding behind his high guard, or will he go out on his shield by giving it all he can to try and beat Golovkin. I’d like to think that Murray will show some courage in the fight and actually try and win, but I don’t see that happening.

I believe Murray is going to play it safe and merely fight in order to keep from getting knocked out. This means that Murray will cover up for the entire fight and hope that he can take Golovkin’s best shots on his gloves and forearms. What could mess up this strategy for Murray is if Golovkin goes to the body. Murray can’t cover up both areas, so he’ll likely cover his head 99% percent of the time and hope that Golovkin doesn’t go to the body like he did in his knockout win over Matthew Macklin.

If Golovkin does opt to focus on Murray’s body then we’ll likely see Murray on the canvas holding his midsection with a look of excruciating pain on his face by the 3rd or 4th round. I see this fight ending early if Murray is just going to cover up his head and not try and win the fight.

You can’t play sparring partner against Golovkin because he’ll take you out with a body shot if all you’re going to do is cover up your head for the entire fight. That doesn’t work against a talented fighter like Golovkin. It might work against a one-legged and one-armed fighter like Sergio Martinez, but not against Golovkin. He actually throws to the body and he’ll take advantage of Murray’s timid style of fighting if that’s how he’s going to be fighting on February 21st.



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