By William Mackay: Number #4 ranked WBC lightweight contender and current European Boxing Union (EBU) lightweight champion John Murray (30-0, 18 KO’s) could be facing Michael Katsidis or Kevin Mitchell in 2011. Murray is looking for better things this year and would like to challenge WBA/WBO lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez for his titles. However, that’s not likely to happen as the 26-year-old Murray still doesn’t have a big enough name and isn’t ranked high enough to make Marquez take notice and want to go after the fight.
Golden Boy Promotions matchmaker Roberto Diaz, speaking to the Manchester Evening News, said this about Murray: “A fight against Marquez? No. There’s nothing in it for Marquez and everything for John. Marquez vs. Khan, maybe. He’s a big name and there is the chance of a title in a fourth division. John needs to build his name in America first. I can see him fighting Victor Ortiz or Robert Guerrero – younger guys – because TV would buy it. But pay per view won’t buy it.”
Murray needs to do what Khan did to get popular, namely take on some old fighters like Marco Antonio Barrera and then go after a faded star like Paulie Malignaggi and pick up fame, call out a lot of people, and keep going after weaker guys without much punch. If Murray does that, he’ll get popular fast. But he needs to focus on fighting guys that Americans have heard of. Right now, Murray is wasting his time on fighting only local competition. That won’t make him a star I’m afraid. He needs to branch out from that and go after guys that are known around the world, not just on the domestic scene. One problem that Murray has right now is that the lightweight division is pretty solid right now with champions Marquez, Humberto Soto and Miguel Vazquez. There’s no one weak like with the light welterweight division when Khan was able to fight paper champion Andriy Kotelnik and pick up the WBA paper title. Had Khan been forced to fight someone like Devon Alexander or Timothy Bradley, he likely would have never won a title and would have probably been knocked out. It’s all about match making.
Comments are closed.