By Scott Gilfoid: With only a month to go before his title defense against Britain’s Martin Murray (29-1-1, 12 KOs), WBA middleweight champ Gennady Golovkin (31-0, 28 KOs) hit the scales in their 30-day weigh-in on Wednesday in Johannesburg, South Africa for their February 21st fight at the Salle des Étoiles, Monte Carlo, Monaco.

Golovkin weighed in at 172 pounds, which was within the World Boxing Council’s limits for the 30-day weigh-in. Murray weighed in slightly less at 169 pounds. We don’t really know how much weight Murray had to strip off in order to make the weigh-in today, because he’s a huge middleweight and considered to be the bigger fighter than Golovkin.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Murray had to drop 10 pounds or more to get to the 169 weight. The maximum limit that both fighters could have weighed in at was 176 pounds for the 30-day weigh-in.

The venue for the Golovkin-Murray fight isn’t an ideal one, as Golovkin is trying to become a huge star in the United States. With him still fighting in Monte Carlo, he’s not helping himself any.

The fight will be televised on HBO at 5:45 p.m. ET/PT on February 21st. One can only hope that this is the last fight for Golovkin outside of the U.S.

I wish I could say that Murray has a chance in this fight, but I can’t. He’s too light of a hitter, and he doesn’t seem to have the heart for going to war with his opponents. We saw that loud and clear in his fight against Sergio Martinez in 2013.

That has got to be one of the least impressive performances I’ve seen from a contender for a long, long time. Murray could have won the fight had he stopped hiding behind his clam-shell guard all night long and thrown some actual punches. But instead of letting his hands go, Murray hid behind his guard for most of the fight and let his chance of success slip through his fingers against Martinez, who into the fight with a torn up right knee.

Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez has already said that if Murray hides behind his clam-shell guard on February 21st then Golovkin will knock him out in three rounds. In other words, Golovkin will take Murray’s unprotected body apart with shots until he drops for the 10 count.

Martinez later suffered a hand injury early in the fight that forced him to fight with one hand for much of the fight.

Golovkin badly needs to start facing better opposition than guys like Murray, Gabriel Rosado, Daniel Geale, Marco Antonio Rubio and Matthew Macklin, because those guys aren’t big names and they’re not going to help get Golovkin to the next level where he wants to be at in terms of him becoming a pay-per-view attraction.

Golovkin needs guys like Peter Quillin, Daniel Jacobs, Miguel Cotto, Carl Froch, Mikkel Kessler, and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez to face him in order for him to become a huge star. Unfortunately, I don’t see Golovkin ever getting any of those fights.

Murray stands in Golovkin’s way of a title shot for the WBC middleweight strap held by Cotto. It goes without saying that Cotto will be vacating the WBC belt rather than facing Golovkin. But Golovkin doesn’t need to worry about that. He just needs to make sure that he whips Murray real good and leaves no doubts who the superior fighter is on HBO in their fight on February 21st. Golovkin will be fighting for the WBC title either against Cotto or the next highest ranked contender willing to take the fight.