By Scott Gilfoid: In separate venues tonight, four-time world title challenger Martin Murray (34-4-1, 16 KOs) faces Gennady Golovkin knockout victim Gabriel Rosado (23-10, 13 KOs) in Liverpool, England, and former 2-division world champion Arthur Abraham (45-5, 30 KOs) squares off against Robin Krasniqi (46-5, 17 KOs) in Germany. It’s a couple of neat fights. I wouldn’t say it’s the best going against the best, but these are good fringe level contenders fighting each other.
10-year pro Martin Murray fights Rosado in a middleweight contest in his hometown at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England. Murray, 34, will be fighting in front of a fan friendly audience of his British boxing fans. Murray says there’s no way that an American will come into Liverpool and beat him in front of his own fans.
It’s certainly true that Murray has never been beaten in Liverpool before during his career. Of course, Murray has never fought someone as good as Rosado in Liverpool either. Rosado isn’t the greatest of the middleweights in the division at this time, but he’s a good fringe level guy with some pop in his punches and a TON of experience.
Murray spent the last 2 years of his career experimenting in fighting at 168. He moved up in weight in 2015, thinking he would succeed in this weight class because he wouldn’t need to drop as much weight. In hindsight, it was a terrible decision, because Murray lacked the punching power and the fighting style to do well in the super middleweight division.
After losing to George Groves and Arthur Abraham, Murray decided to move back down shortly after those losses. He did fight his last match at 168 against little known Nuhu Lawal, but that was more of a stay busy fight last November. Lawal is not a talented fighter in the 168lb division.
“This is what I’ve been doing for a long time,” said Rosado to IFL TV. “It’s the first time fighting over the pond in the UK, but this is what I asked for. I always wanted to fight in the UK, especially now. It’s buzzing out here. I think his style suits me. He’s not too quick. I just feel I have the skillset to stop him. Martin is going to bring his A-game, but I just feel I’m the better fighter. I just have to prove it. I don’t plan on bleeding. I plan on fighting a great fight, but of course entertaining the fans,” said Rosado.
Rosado definitely has the punching power and the work rate to pummel the 34-year-old Murray and send his sinking career skittering downwards even further than it already is. Murray is coming into tonight’s fight with a 2-2 record in his last 4 fights. Sadly, Murray believes that if he beats Rosado, it will put him in position to fight for a world title, which he believes he can still win despite having failed 4 times in the past when challenging for a title.
Rosado is blocking Murray from his path to a world title. If Rosado has done his homework well, he’ll have seen how Murray struggles against fighters that throw a lot of punches. In Murray’s losses to Sergio Martinez, Abraham and George Groves, he was badly outworked by the three of them. Those fighters didn’t do anything special other than letting their hands go with constant shots that were designed more to make contact with Murray than hurt him.
The reason why Abraham, Martinez and Groves were able to do this is because of Murray’s bad habit of going into the sparring partner mode when facing good opposition. Instead of punching and moving, Murray covers up with his high guard and just waits for his opponents to stop hitting him before he eventually throws a punch or two.
In the case of Murray’s losses to the above mentioned fighters, he found himself getting hit with almost nonstop shots. Those guys had done their homework well in focusing on throwing shots that made contact. They knew that Murray would hide behind his clam-shell guard the entire time they threw punches, so they just kept hitting him wherever they could.
“I believe I have the skillset to out-skill Martin Murray and beat him to the punch with combinations,” said Rosado. “I think I have better agility and better speed, and the better punching power. It’s a fight that will be entertaining, but it should favor me. This is a great fight. Style-wise, I feel like I can showcase my ability, and kind of put myself in the position to get a big fight again. I’m not going to break under pressure. It’s a great fight, and I get to showcase my skills in the UK,” said Rosado.
When Rosado speaks of wanting to “showcase” his ability, he’s basically letting the boxing fans know the fight is a mismatch. Rosado obviously sees this as an easy fight tonight, and you can understand why. Murray doesn’t have much of an offense. He spends most of the time on defense trying to keep from getting hit.
Putting perhaps as much as 80% of his attention to his defense, Murray doesn’t do enough offensively to win against the better fighters in boxing. Say what you want about Rosado having suffered a lot of defeats on his resume, he has formidable talent and punching power on the offensive side of his game. If Rosado had a better chin and if he didn’t cut so much, he’d have a lot fewer defeats.
“I’m always going to be up for a fight,” said Murray to IFL TV. “He comes for a war. He likes to fight, and so do I. It’s going to be a great fight. Our styles gel. I believe I’m a better fighter. It’s going to be a war, but only when I want it to be a war. You can never write Rosado off, but I believe I’m the better fighter and I’m going to prove that. I know he’s going to bring it. He’s going to want to fight. It’s a great fight for the fans in Liverpool. This is my backyard, and there is no way someone from America is coming over here to beat me. I think the scoring system in the UK is fair. I think whoever wins the fight will be the rightful winner, but I’m expecting it to be me. I don’t think the fight will be close. I think in stages it will be close, but towards the end, I’ll pull away and take over. I’d love to get a world title fight. Maybe a win on Saturday will open the doors again,” said Murray.
Hopefully, tonight’s fight won’t involve a controversial ending, because that would be a pity if the judges mess up what should be a great match.
Prediction
I have to go with the 31-year-old Rosado to win tonight. He’s the younger cat going against an aging 34-year-old Murray, and he’s more willing to let his hands go. I don’t know what it is with Murray, but he freezes under the spotlight when going up against guys with boxing skills, power and a big name. Murray fights beneath his ability. All I can think is that Murray gets the case of the nerves and it effects his thinking process, because he doesn’t let his hands go against the talented or even the semi-talented fighters. Rosado is more of a semi-talented guy with decent but not great boxing ability and power.
Arthur Abraham mixes it up with Robin Krasniqi tonight
#2 WBO Arthur Abraham (45-5, 30 KOs) and #3 WBO Robin Krasniqi (46-4, 17 KOs) mix it up tonight in a World Boxing Organization 168lb title eliminator bout at the Messehalle in Erfurt, Germany. Abraham-Krasniqi will be fighting to select a mandatory for WBO super middleweight champion Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez. Abraham, 37, already lost to the 6’2” Ramirez by a 12 round unanimous decision last year in April 2016.
The way that Abraham was beaten in that fight seemed to give me the impression that he’ll never be able to beat Ramirez. Abraham is too slow on his feet, and too much of a plodder to beat a mobile guy like Ramirez without some major changes to his game. Never the less, Abraham will still get a nice little payday if he can get a second fight against the 25-year-old Ramirez. However, Abraham needs to get past the 30-year-old Krasniqi tonight.
Krasniqi has decent skills. He’s not great fighter by any stretch of the imagination. Frankly, I rate Krasniqi as a bottom feeder in terms of ability. I don’t know why the WBO has Krasniqi ranked #3. I don’t see that kind of talent from him. Krasniqi has been beaten in the past by Nathan Cleverly, Juergen Braehmer, Adrian Cemega and Sven Haselhuhn. Krasniqi has never beaten anyone that you can call a good fighter. He’s pretty much beaten largely obscure opposition. These are some of Krasniqi’s recent wins: Juergen Doberstein. Cagri Ermis and Vaclav Polak. Honestly, I have never heard of any of them. I still don’t understand why the WBO has Krasniqi ranked so high based off of those wins.
I think Abraham beats Krasniqi without any problems if he lets his hands go and pressures him. You can bet that Krasniqi will be mobile tonight to keep from getting hit as much as possible. He’ll likely be using the blueprint that Ramirez created in how to beat Abraham, because it worked so well. Abraham was nearly helpless in that fight against Ramirez, mostly because he wasn’t willing to take the shots that he needed to for him to put a lot of pressure on him. Abraham fought like he didn’t want to take the punishment that he needed to for him to have a chance of winning.
