John Murray wants Soto, Diaz, Katsidis and Marquez next, but might have to settle for Ortiz

By Boxing News - 09/26/2010 - Comments

By Sean McDaniel: After successfully defending his EBU lightweight title with a 9th round stoppage victory over challenger Andriy Kudryavtsev (34-8, 15 KO’s) on Saturday night at the Robin Park Centre, in Wigan, Lancashire, champion John Murray (30-0, 18 KO’s) says he’s ready to challenge for a world title against champions Humberto Soto, Michael Katsidis or Juan Manuel Marquez.

Murray said “Michael Katsidis, which I think would be an absolute war if we got it on, there’s Juan Diaz and then also Juan Manuel Marquez. Also, Soto, who is the current WBC champion. I’d love a shot at the world title before Christmas.”

It remains to be seen whether any of those champions will choose to fight Murray next. Murray is ranked number #3 by the WBC, but there are a number of other contenders ranked well ahead of him by the IBF, WBA and WBO. If Murray doesn’t get one of those fights, there’s interest in having him fight light welterweight contender Victor Ortiz on the undercard of the Amir Khan vs. Marcos Maidana fight on December 11th.

Murray seems open to that idea, saying : “Definitely, yeah. I’m going to go to Egypt for a week, get a bit of sun on my back, and then we will be back into training.” Murray would have to move up in weight five pounds to take on Ortiz, but that shouldn’t be too much of a problem for him. However, what might be a problem is the difference in power and speed that Ortiz would present for him.

In comparison to the slender and weak Kudryavtsev, Ortiz is much faster and a lot more powerful. Murray didn’t overpowering against Kudryavtsev and was hit pretty much every time the Ukrainian would throw a punch. Murray might have big problems with the kind of power and speed that Ortiz possesses.

It would be a great opportunity for Murray to be fighting on the undercard of the Khan-Maidana fight, but Murray might no match up very well with a guy like Ortiz. Murray hasn’t proved that he belongs among the top five in the lightweight division, and yet he would be facing a proven top light welterweight in the 23-year-old Ortiz. Murray could find himself getting knocked out in front of a large Las Vegas crowd against the powerful Ortiz.



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