By Scott Gilfoid: British promoter Frank Warren thinks his fighter lightweight contender John Murray (31-1, 18 KO’s) can bounce back from his one-sided 8th round knockout loss to Kevin Mitchell (32-1, 24 KO’s) and still find success during his career. Warren doesn’t say what kind of success he thinks Murray can still accomplish, but hopefully he’s not under the impression that Murray can move onto fight and win a title at lightweight.

That’s just not going to happen. The division is too strong, Murray is too slow, and there’s just not enough soft opposition for him to pick up a title against. Maybe if a paper champion emerges after Juan Manuel Marquez vacates or retires, Murray can go after the paper champ to pick up a belt. I don’t know what’s the point of picking up a paper title but that’s about all I can see of Murray. Just imagine what would happen if you put Murray in with guys like Brandon Rios, Marquez, Miguel Vazquez, Robert Guerrero or Humberto Soto. It wouldn’t be pretty, let me tell you.

Warren said this to the Manchester Evening News about Murray: “It’s not the end of the world for him. He was involved in a world class fight and he’s got to take a leaf out of Kevin’s book and bounce back. I signed him to get a world title shot and this one would have secured it for him. I think John will learn from this fight. The bottom line is he’s with us and because he’s with us, we’ll look after him.”

Yeah, I guess Warren may get a title shot for Murray at some point, but I don’t see a rosy picture for that fight unless it’s against someone that I haven’t mentioned. If Murray takes on someone good, I see him getting thrashed even worse than Mitchell. Heck, even Mitchell will be in way, way over his head if you throw him in a title bout against Brandon Rios, Vazquez or Marquez. He’s basically in the same boat. Mitchell and Murray are good domestic/European level fighters but not on the level of Rios some of the other guys.

While I do agree with Warren in part that Murray can bounce back from the defeat to Mitchell, but not in a real meaningful way. Sure, Warren can throw him in with some local lads and Murray will start in where he left off and destroy them. But so what? If you take Murray and match him against world class contenders like Jorge Linares, Miguel Acosta, Urbano Antillon, John Molina, Antonio DeMarco, Paulus Moses, Anthony Peterson, Mercito Gesta, and Michael Katsidis, Murray would likely be destroyed in all of those fights. The same for Mitchell. Katsidis already made easy work of Mitchell.