By Sean McDaniel: Unbeaten lightweight John Murray (31-0, 18 KO’s) faces the toughest test of his eight year pro career next month on July 9th against once beaten former British/Commonwealth super featherweight champion Kevin Mitchell (31-1, 23 KO’s) for the vacant WBO Inter-Continental lightweight title in London, England. Murray, 26, just happens to be coming off a poor performance against Spaniard Karim El Ouazghari last April, a bout that Murray won by a 12 round unanimous decision.

Murray walked into a lot of hard left hooks and right hands from the hard hitting Ouazghari and it wasn’t the kind of performance that Murray needed going into a tough fight against Mitchell.

Speaking with Manchester Evening News, Murray said “I am going to push myself to the limit because I need to be in top shape if I am going to do a real good job on Kevin, which is what I expect. I will go to the gym, then to my mum’s house, eat, sleep and run. I will be like a machine for the next six weeks. But you have to live like a monk.”

It doesn’t sound too appealing from Murray’s description. However, his stamina is going to be the key for him in this fight and it definitely makes sense that he’s looking to come into the fight in the best possible shape he can. If Murray is going to win this fight, it’s going to be because he’s taken advantage of Mitchell’s inactivity and is going to wear him down over the course of the fight.

Mitchell hasn’t fought since being stopped in the 3rd round last year by Michael Katsidis. Mitchell said he wasn’t ready for that fight and didn’t train hard enough. But the fact remains that Mitchell was totally dominated by Katsidis and couldn’t handle his power. Murray no doubt will be trying to take a page from Katsidis’ playbook by bringing the power on July 9th to test Mitchell’s whiskers to see if he can get him out early the way that Katsidis did.