Murray Defeats McAllister

By Boxing News - 01/17/2009 - Comments

murray452564By Nate Anderson: John Murray (26-0, 14 KOs) successfully defended his title tonight, stopping challenger Lee McAllister (27-2, 5 KOs) in the 8th round of a scheduled 12-round bout at the Robin Park Centre, Wigan, in Lancashire. Murray, 24, rallied after falling behind in the first three rounds to come back and stop McAllister in the 8th after landing a perfect left to the midsection that sent him down. McAllister made it to his feet by the count of nine but the fight was stopped anyway as he looked too hurt to continue.

Murray showed a lot of heart and confidence not to get down on himself in the early going as McAllister, 26, appeared to fast for him and hit him often with jabs and combinations to the head. Murray had huge problems landing anything in the opening round, missing often due to McAllister’s lateral movement and fast hands.

McAllister would continue to dominate the fight for most of the 2nd round, hitting the slower Murray with nice combinations and stinging him with hard jabs. It’s too bad for McAllister that the fight couldn’t have been stopped right here because he looked like he was on his way to beating Murray and snatching his title in the process. However, in the last minute of the round Murray came on, walking through McAllister’s fast shots and tagging him with a series of left hands to the head.

In the 3rd round, McAllister came out moving, shooting his jab and circling Murray. The movement was effective initially in keeping Murray from landing but he soon cut off the ring on McAllister and landed some hard left hands to the head and tagging him with right uppercuts. McAllister made a big mistake in the last minute of the round by standing in the corner and trying to fight it out with Murray.

At close quarters, McAllister proved to be no match for Murray, who landed a blizzard of punches to the head of McAllister. As the round ended, McAllister tried smiling at Murray, trying to show that he wasn’t bothered by the shots that he had taken in the round, but he did seem bothered.

McAllister came back well in the 4th round, staying exclusively on the outside and hitting Murray with jabs and fast right hands. Murray was able to land a couple of big shots in the round but for the most part, he was too slow to catch up to McAllister in the round and was forced to eat a lot of jabs.

In the 5th round, Murray once again caught McAllister against the ropes and punished him with combinations, bloodying his nose. McAllister smiling, trying to bluff Murray into thinking that he wasn’t troubled by his shots. He was, though. McAllister then began taunting Murray, keeping his hands down and daring Murray to hit him. Murray responded with a right uppercut and two left hands to end the round, thus wiping the smile off of McAllister.

In rounds six and seven, Murray landed the much harder shots, walking through McAllister’s punches in order to get his own bigger punches in. McAllister was out-landing him by a slim margin but his punches were no match for Murray’s bigger shots.

McAllister began to look tired, throwing mostly arm punches, yet even when he would load up on them, Murray wasn’t bothered. Murray did have a nasty purple bruise under his right eye, but that was the extent of his damage from McAllister.

Murray caught a tired-looking McAllister against the ropes in the 6th and landed some nice left hands and a good right to the body. McAllister once again started moving again but he was now getting hit much more than he had in the earlier rounds and it seemed to be sapping the energy out of him slowly but surely. The 7th round was all Murray, as he constantly pressured McAllister and landed hard right hands to the head and nice uppercuts. McAllister looked finished.

In the 8th round, Murray went after McAllister at the start of the round, landing right hands and lefts to the body. McAllister made the mistake of retreating to the ropes and covering up. Murray then came in and landed a nice left-right combination and then a hard left to the midsection, sending McAllister down on the canvas. He got to his feet but the fight was immediately stopped.



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