By Sean McDaniel: EBU lightweight champion John Murray (30-0, 18 KO’s) wants the big fights against fighters like Amir Khan, Juan Manuel Marquez, Humberto Soto and Michael Katsidis after toiling away for the past seven years in the pro ranks. Murray, 25, will likely be getting a title shot in the near future against either Soto or the winner of the Marquez-Katsidis bout. However, Murray is being lured into fighting on the undercard of Khan’s December 11th card against twice beaten light welterweight contender Victor Ortiz.

It’s a bout that Murray could make a huge name for himself if he were to win the fight. This would completely apart from his lightweight action, because Ortiz is a light welterweight. It’s a fight in which Khan has already said that he would agree to take on Murray in the future if he’s able to beat Ortiz. However, Khan obviously wouldn’t have said that if he didn’t think Murray had very little chance of winning the fight, because a fight between Khan and Murray would be seen as a backwards step for Khan. That’s something that Khan has mentioned himself in reasoning why there’s little point in him fighting Murray at this point in his career.

Murray is ranked number #3 by the WBC, and will be getting a fight against WBC lightweight champion Soto in the near future. However, that’s a fight which likely won’t give Murray as much attention compared to if he were to beat a guy like Ortiz, who is a fighter on the rise in the boxing world and is well known to American fans. If Murray takes the fight with Soto, and loses it, he’s pretty much out as far as getting a future shot at Khan. But if he steps up in weight and takes on Ortiz, he stands the chance of getting a big money fight against Khan if he can somehow win the fight.

Both the Soto and the Ortiz fight are risky bouts. Losing to Ortiz would seem like a fight that would be less damaging to Murray’s career because Ortiz is after all a bigger fighter with a lot more power. Losing to him will have a built in excuse for Murray to use. That excuse won’t be there if he loses to Soto. If he gets beaten by him, then Murray has go go back to square one and decide what he wants to do. Soto is a good fighter, but Katsidis and Marquez would probably be even more problems for Murray.