(Martin Murray seen here hiding behind his clam-shell guard against George Groves) By Scott Gilfoid: Former four time world title challenger Martin Murray (33-4, 16 KOs) suffered a disappointing 12 round unanimous decision loss to George Groves last Saturday night in their WBA 168lb eliminator bout at the O2 Arena in London, UK.
The loss has many boxing fans expecting the soon to be 34-year-old Murray to hang up his gloves after nine years as a pro. However, commentator Glen McCrory thinks Murray should hold off on his retirement and look instead to move back down to the 160llb division to resume fighting in that weight class.
Murray had previously fought almost his entire pro career at middleweight. It wasn’t until he was stopped in the 11th round by WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin in February of last year that Murray decided to move up to super middleweight to campaign as a 168lb fighter in that weight division. In hindsight, it was a really bad move on Murray’s part, because he didn’t have punching power in the middleweight division. Going up to 168 would only highly Murray’s lack of power even more so. Whatever the case, Murray beat three soft opponents at super middleweight before losing to Groves, who you can argue is a soft opponent as well.
“Martin Murray should postpone retirement and launch another world title campaign as a middleweight,” said McCrory to skysports.com. “I definitely don’t think Martin Murray should retire now. He pushed George Groves hard and that was the best that Groves has been. Groves is improving under Shane McGuigan, knows what he’s doing and is fighting to a plan. That comes with more experience in the corner.”
Yeah, Murray gave Groves some problems in rounds three and four when he finally started letting his hands go. However, Murray wasted his opportunity to win against a fighter with a fragile chin in Groves by failing to throw punches in the second half of the fight. Murray’s offense wasn’t consistent enough. He spent entirely too much time hiding behind his clam-shell guard instead of throwing punches.
If Murray had just forgot about the clam-shell guard and went on the attack for three minutes of every round, then he probably would have ended up knocking Groves out, because he looked to be the stronger fighter of the two. Murray’s punching power might not be as good as some of the super middleweights like Lucian Bute, but he was the better puncher than Groves.
Murray had more than enough power to KO Groves if he’d simply stopped covering up and increased his work rate. I’m not sure why Murray wouldn’t throw any punches in the fight. I got the impression that he was either afraid of getting nailed by one of Groves’ hard shots, or he didn’t trust his own stamina to fight hard instead of just covering up with the old high guard like he’d done in p[previous fights when stepping it up against world class opposition.
“For me, he simply wasn’t big enough,” said McCrory about Murray.” I wouldn’t worry about Murray at all because he was still strong, pushing forward and trying to take the fight on.”
Sorry, McCrory, but I do think it’s time for Murray to start worrying. Murray has got to worry because he keeps getting beaten when he steps it up a level. Like a lot of people, I thought Murray could have beaten Sergio Martin and Felix Sturm if he’d just let his hands go. He wouldn’t or couldn’t do it though. That’s either a training issue or a stamina issue.
Perhaps Murray needs to dump his trainer and find someone that can push him hard enough for him to throw 70 to 100 punches per round for 12 rounds. Believe me, if Murray had averaged 70 punches per round against Groves, he would have knocked him out last Saturday. The fact that Murray couldn’t come out from hiding behind his clam-shell guard to throw even one-third of that amount suggests to me that he needs to get a new trainer that can whip him into action in between rounds. If I had been Murray’s trainer last Saturday, he would have been letting his hands go big time.