Martin Murray faces his first A level fighter on Friday night against Felix Sturm

By Boxing News - 12/01/2011 - Comments

Image: Martin Murray faces his first A level fighter on Friday night against Felix SturmBy Scott Gilfoid: On Friday night boxing fans are going to see a good textbook case for why it’s not a good reason to coddle a fighter against B and C level fighters too long when we see unbeaten Martin Murray (23-0, 10 KO’s) face WBA World middleweight champion Felix Sturm (36-2-1, 15 KO’s) at the SAP-Arena in Mannheim, Germany.

This will be the first time that the 29-year-old Murray has fought an A class fighter despite a high ranking of #3 by the World Boxing Association. Murray’s handers really have done him no favors by never having put him in with an A level fighter.

Murray is going to be in total shock on Friday night when he gets in there with Sturm. It’s going to be a terrible massacre and one I could see coming a mile away. I feel sorry for Murray. If his management had matched him up against even a fringe contender, he would be in so much better shape.

Murray is going from facing guys like Lee Noble and Nick Blackwell to a title shot against Sturm. Where are the transition fighters from the top tier? How is it that Murray was ranked at number #3 without ever having fought a top tier fighter before?

This is why the sanctioning bodies need to be replaced with one organization that has clear rules for how fighters are ranked. Having guys like Murray ranked in the top three without any experience is bad for boxing. All it leads to is mismatches like Friday’s fight and Murray could end up getting hurt. He’s not going to win, no way.

I’ve seen Murray plenty of times and I think he would be destroyed by some of Sturm’s victims in the past few years like Ronald Hearns, Giovanni Lorenzo, Matthew Macklin, Sebastian Sylvester, Randy Griffin and Khoren Gevor.

Murray just isn’t up to the task. I’m not saying he would be if he fought some of the top tier guys, but at least he’d be weeded out so boxing fans wouldn’t have to sit through another Sturm mismatch. They know what they’re getting in Murray. That’s why they chose him, because he’s a nice beatable fighter for Sturm to pad his resume with.



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