By Sean McDaniel: Fresh off his unimpressive 12 round unanimous decision win over challenger Karim El Ouazghari last Saturday night, EBU lightweight champion John Murray (31-0, 18 KO’s) is now reportedly eying a hoped for title shot against WBC lightweight champion Humberto Soto (55-7-2, 32 KO’s) next.

Murray might have to wait for a shot against the 30-year-old Soto, as he has a scheduled fight coming up on May 7th against Urbano Antillon on the undercard of Manny Pacquiao vs. Shane Mosley at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Murray can wait hope to fight the winner of that fight or he can take on Kevin Mitchell in the short term.

However, that fight has a lot of risk packed in it, because before Mitchell was beaten last year by Michael Katsidis, Mitchell looked to be better than Murray. If Mitchell can get back in fighting shape in the next few months, he may be still good enough to beat Murray and thus wreck his hopes of fighting for the title.

In reviewing Murray’s fight with Ouazghari, I don’t believe Murray is ready to face a high caliber fighter like Soto. I think Soto would easily knock Murray out in a one-sided fight. I also believe Antillon would make easy work of Murray as well.

I think Murray needs to think hard before attempting to fight a guy like Soto. Murray needs more of a step up fight before taking on a guy like that. Even Mitchell probably won’t be much help to get Murray ready for what he will be facing against Soto. That’s if Murray can even beat Mitchell, which I don’t think he can.