By Scott Gilfoid: The December 3rd card headlined by a mega fight between WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito has a few decent fights on the card. Unfortunately, the fight between WBA World lightweight champion Brandon Rios (28-0-1, 21 KO’s) vs. John Murray (31-1, 18 KO’s) isn’t one of them.

Murray, ranked #11 by the World Boxing Association, has an impressive looking record when you take a quick glance at it, but if you examine it under close scrutiny you’ll notice a complete lack of time fight opponents.

It’s pretty much all 2nd and 3rd tier opposition as far as the eye can see. The one time Murray stepped up and faced a decent fighter in Kevin Mitchell last July, Murray was slapped back down in an 8th round TKO loss. That’s the last time Murray fought, and I still can’t believe he’s getting a title shot on the back of that performance.

Murray looked slow, easy to hit and out of his class against Mitchell. It was a weeding out fight, but instead of being weeded out properly the he was supposed to, Murray is still moving forward to take on Rios. I don’t get it. Rios is perhaps two levels above Mitchell in talent and now he’s facing a guy that Mitchell easily beat in Murray.

You see what I mean? This is a horrible mismatch and I can’t see how it can add to the fireworks of the Cotto-Margarito fight unless you like brutally one-sided fights that resemble someone working out on a heavy bag without much danger of anything back. Murray is going to be slaughtered by Rios, and you know Rios is going to be want to impress due to his good friend Margarito being on the card.

He’s not going to take it easy on Murray. It’s going to be an all-out attack from the moment the bell rings until Murray is left in a pool of blood face down on the canvas. Hopefully, Rios steps it up after this and doesn’t set up any more mismatches.