By William Mackay: Golden Boy Promotions wants to get EBU lightweight champion John Murray 30-0, 18 KO’s) to fight on their December 11th fight card with Amir Khan vs. Marcos Maidana in Las Vegas, Nevada. Murray, 25, would be facing light welterweight knockout artist Victor Ortiz (28-2-1, 22 KO’s) in a bout that might end up being more exciting than the Khan-Maidana fight. But there’s confusion whether Murray’s management are willing to put him in a difficult fight like the one that Golden Boy wants to put him in.

I think it would a great opportunity for Murray to take, and he might end up missing out if his management choose to keep him off the card. Murray only can gain from fighting Ortiz. If he fights him, the entire world will see him fight instead of just UK fans. If he loses to Ortiz, so what? He’ll have the excuse that he’s facing a bigger guy and that would be enough cover for boxing fans not to rake him over the coals about the loss.

This may be as good as it gets for Murray. I really don’t think he can beat top lightweights like Humberto Soto, Juan Manuel Marquez, Michael Katsidis and Kevin Mitchell. I those fighters are all better than him. Mitchell is a UK fighter, but he’s a lot faster and appears to be a better boxer than Murray. If Murray turns down the Ortiz fight, he could end up going back to the UK and getting beaten by Soto, Marquez or Katsidis. That would be it for Murray. He’d be exposed and he’d have to settle for being just a domestic fighter, which is what I think he will ending up being.

I don’t think he has world level skills at this moment. I see Mitchell as having big talent, but not Murray. Maybe he can improve in the future if he takes on better fighters like Ortiz, but if he stays in the UK fighting mostly the mediocre opposition over there, he’s not going to develop the way he needs to. Murray needs to start facing better fighters so that he can get to the next level and get the most out of his ability. I think he should start by stepping up and fighting Ortiz on the Khan vs. Maidana undercard.