By Scott Gilfoid: John Murray (31-1, 18 KO’s) is reportedly back with his old trainer Joe Gallagher after a brief bit of time away from him. However, it likely won’t matter for Murray’s next fight who’s working as his trainer because Murray is really up against it in his December 3rd fight against WBA World lightweight champion Brandon Rios (28-0-1, 21 KOs) at Madison Square Garden in New York.

I think Murray could be trained by Gallagher, Freddie Roach, and Emanuel Steward all at once and Murray will still likely get mowed down by Rios in two or three rounds. This has less to do with training and more to do with basic talent in my estimation Murray seems to lack the hand speed, power and defensive ability for him to compete with the likes of Rios. We kind of saw that in Murray’s loss to Kevin Mitchell last July.

Murray plodded forward all night long, but his punches had no effect on the shaky-chinned Mitchell and his hand speed was sourly lacking in that fight. That’s what I was afraid of before the fight. I had seen Murray’s other fighter fights against lesser opposition and thought he was painfully slow for a lightweight. And sure enough, Mitchell badly exposed Murray’s flaws, knocking him out in the 8th round.

Now, Murray is facing an even better fighter than Mitchell and it really doesn’t matter too much that Murray is back with Gallagher. I’m sure Murray is happy to be back with his old trainer but will it make a difference? I don’t think it will make one bit of difference in this fight.

Rios is the equivalent of a great white shark and he’s going to be fed a fighter that will be like a tuna. Rios will rip Murray apart immediately and there won’t be feeling out period. Rios doesn’t play that. He won’t carry Murray out of sympathy or to get in rounds. Rios will jump on Murray, take his head off and walk away with a quick KO in the 1st or 2nd round.