By Sean McDaniel: With Kevin Mitchell and Amir Khan not currently showing much interest in fighting British and European Boxing Union lightweight champion John Murray (29-0, 17 KO’s), he is now turning his attention to WBO lightweight interim champion Michael Katsidis (27-2, 22 KO’s) for his next fight. Murray, 25, would like to fight Katsidis in September at the M.E.N. Arena in Manchester, England, where he thinks he can sellout the arena. Murray believes that he can make a name for himself by beating the Australian, the same way that fellow Brit Ricky Hatton made a name for himself in defeating Kostya Tszyu by an 11th round stoppage in 2005.

“When Ricky fought Tszyu not many people gave him a chance,” Murray says in an article at the Manchestereveningnews. “But he packed out the MEN Arena and put in the greatest performance of his career. People aren’t giving me a chance against Katsidis, but it will be Kostya Tszyu all over again.” Not too many people are talking about Murray and Katsidis as a potential fight. Katsidis is looking at fighting WBO lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez for a big money fight in the future. Murray isn’t really on the radar screen for Katsidis at this time. Katsidis also, if he chooses, could fight WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan, who is interested in fighting him. That fight would likely make more money than a bout against Murray.

Katsidis, 29, stopped Kevin Mitchell in the 3rd round last weekend at Upton Park in an impressive performance. Mitchell, a faster and more powerful puncher than Murray, was no match against the much stronger Katsidis. It’s hard to see Murray having better luck than Mitchell because he’s a lot slower and doesn’t hit quite as hard. Things could turn out really bad for Murray if he were matched against Katsidis. Two weeks ago, Murray defeated Gary Buckland by an 11th round TKO. Murray looked slow, took a lot of shots and didn’t look very impressive in beating a fighter that was tailor made for him.

Murray’s defense, power and hand speed just wasn’t there in that fight and he looked very beatable. Murray might be better off going after the recently beaten Mitchell right now rather than Katsidis. If Murray can get by Mitchell, which I highly doubt, then he should go after Katsidis. But right now, there’s nothing I’ve seen in Murray’s previous fights that would suggest that he would do anything other than get quickly knocked out by Katsidis. At best, I see Murray’s chin keeping him on his feet for 6 to 8 rounds, with him serving pretty much as a punching bag for Katsidis.

Hatton may have beaten Tszyu in the past, but people fail to remember that Tszyu was 36, at the end of the line, and coming off a string of injuries that had limited him to one fight a year in the past two years coming into the fight with Hatton. I would easily favor that version of Tszyu over Murray by early knockout. I think Murray has a lot of work to do before he’s ready for the big time fighters in the lightweight division and Katsidis would seem like a step too far at this stage in Murray’s career. It wouldn’t matter how many fans show up at the M.E.N Arena to support him, he would still likely get destroyed by Katsidis. Mitchell packed in over 20,000 fans last weekend at Upton Park and a lot of good it did him. He still got destroyed.