By Scott Gilfoid: British lightweight John Murray (31-1, 18 KO’s) has been handed a golden opportunity by being selected by Top Rank to be the next opponent for WBA lightweight champion Brandon Rios (28-0-1, 21 KO’s) on December 3rd at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Murray was chosen because the fighter they wanted for Rios, Kevin Mitchell, wasn’t able to travel to the U.S due to a lingering legal issue. As such, Murray is being given the chance to fight for the title against Rios even though Murray was knocked out in the 8th round in his last fight against Mitchell last July.

“I’m over the moon with this opportunity and I’m not going over to New York to make up the numbers” Murray said to thesun.co.uk. “I can win this. I believe this has come at the right time and I can beat him. Fighting in America doesn’t bother in me…I’m looking forward to causing an upset.”

It’s nice when an over-matched fighter like Murray believe they’re going to win, but it’s also kind of sad as well because Murray doesn’t have a chance in this fight. But let’s be honest here for a second. Murray is fodder and is going to be slaughtered like a hog on December 3rd. That’s the way it is and that’s going to be.

Murray no doubt is going to come out looking to give it his best college try, but Rios is so much faster, stronger and talented compared to him that he’s never going to have a chance. Murray does a great job against 2nd and 3rd tier opposition. You throw him in with those kinds of fighters and he’s like a little pitbull, ripping them to pieces with ease. But the problem is when he’s moved up a level, he struggles as we saw with his spanking at the hands of Mitchell. That was nothing though. Murray is going to be moving up another level in facing Rios, and Murray hasn’t even proven he can handle it at Mitchell’s level. That fight showed that Murray doesn’t have the talent to fight at a higher level, and now he’s taking on an even fighter than Mitchell on December 3rd.

It’s going to be a massacre. But it is nice that Murray feels confident about his chances in this fight. It’s good because he won’t come into the fight with a lot of fear of Rios and by the time he realizes he really stepped in it, the fight will be quickly over. Rios will bomb Murray out, and he’ll be trotted back to his dressing room in defeat.