Abraham says he picked Murray because he’s a strong boxer

By Boxing News - 10/11/2015 - Comments

abraham44By Scott Gilfoid: WBO super middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (43-4, 29 KOs) says he picked #15 WBO Martin Murray (32-2-1, 15 KOs) out for his next opponent on November 21st because he wanted to face a strong fighter, who had fought in previous world championships. Abraham says he likes to fight good fighters.

Abraham doesn’t say why he selected a fighter with a #15 ranking in Murray or why he’s been fighting these guys in the last two years: Robert Stieglitz, Paul Smith, Nikola Sjekloca, Giovanni De Carolis, and Willbeforce Shihepo. If what Abraham says about him wanting to fight the best then why hasn’t he been fighting the Dirrell brothers recently instead of the above mentioned fighters?

“He’s a good boxer. He has very good experience,” Abraham said to skysports.com about Murray. “He has good fights. He’s boxing more times in world championships. I want boxing good fight. I don’t like not strong fighter. I like strong fighter. He’s strong and he’s got good boxing,” Abraham said. “I’m very hungry. Not for money, for the belt. For this, I’m very, very hungry. For me this this is number one.”

I don’t buy it what Abraham is saying about him fighting Murray because he wanted to fight a strong fighter. I think this is fight is nothing more than a case of Abraham facing a guy in a voluntary defense, and picking from the bottom of the World Boxing Organization’s top 15 in order to face a weak opponent with a recognizable name.

Murray is recognizable now because of his defeats at the hands of Gennady Golovkin, Sergio Martinez and his draw with Felix Sturm. Murray has become well-known for him being the opponent that losses in world championship fights, and Abraham is choosing him. What I want to know is why isn’t Abraham beating his chest and stomping his feet trying to call out the guy that recently whipped Murray in Golovkin? That makes a heck of a lot more sense to me than for Abraham to be getting excited about a fighter who was knocked out by Golovkin last February.

Murray did not look good in the Golovkin fight. He ran, he held, and he basically just tried to stall out the fight rather than trying to win it. If it was me, I wouldn’t want to waste time fighting Murray because he’s already been exposed three times by Golovkin, Martinez and Sturm. By the way, I thought Murray should have lost the fight with Sturm. I had Sturm winning that fight by four rounds.

YouTube video

Murray has done zero to redeem himself since his loss to Golovkin. In his last three fights, he’s beaten these 2nd and 3rd tier fighters: Jose Miguel Torres, Mirzet Bajrektarevic and George Beroshvili. When you get beaten like Murray did against Golovkin, you’re supposed to redeem youself before getting another world title shot.

You don’t go out and beat obscure guys like the above mentioned fighters and then get a world title shot straightaway. The other top contenders in the WBO’s rankings are really getting the shaft in being passed over by Abraham and his promoters at Sauerland Events for a fighter who just moved up to the super middleweight division this year, and who was recently beaten by Golovkin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_kGwJij5J0

Murray is getting a world title shot off the back of his recent failure. You don’t see that kind of thing in the NFL, basketball and baseball. In those sports, when you fail, you get left behind. That’s why some fans see the sport of boxing as being similar to professional wrestling.

They see it more about popularity than about achievement. Look at Andre Berto being given a world title shot against Floyd Mayweather Jr. Berto came into the fight having lost 3 out of his last 6 fights. Berto didn’t have to beat a 1st tier fighter to get the fight against Mayweather. He just had to beat a 2nd tier guy in Josesito Lopez, who isn’t ranked in the top 15 by any of the sanctioning bodies.

“There’s no disputing the Golovkin rumble,” Murray said to skysports.com. “There’s an argument for the Sturm one. The Martinez one I felt I won, but I was never going to get it. Just as long as the scoring is judged fairly.”

I hate to break this to Murray, but he lost the fight to Martinez in 2013 because he didn’t throw enough punches to win. Murray spent much of the fight hiding behind his clam-shell defense rather than throwing punches.

When you hide behind your clam-shell guard all night long, then of course you’re going to lose. Yeah, Murray had a few decent rounds, but he was still badly outworked by Martinez in the vast majority of the rounds, and he fought like a guy that was just trying to survive to hear the final bell rather than someone trying to win.



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