Where to now for John Murray?

By Boxing News - 12/04/2011 - Comments

By Scott Gilfoid: After last Saturday’s night second consecutive knockout loss things are looking kind of dark for John Murray (31-2, 18 KO’s), who was blasted out by Brandon Rios in an 11th round TKO on the Miguel Cotto vs. Antonio Margarito card.

I know Murray was really looking forward to all of the American eyeballs staring at him, but I bet he didn’t want to be seen getting the stuffing beaten out of him. Right now he’s probably on a long plane flight back to the UK, thinking what he should have and could have done differently to get the win.

The reality is Murray did the best he could against Rios at his weakest point of his career, and yet Murray still couldn’t beat him. Rios reportedly had eaten next to nothing for five days leading up to the fight in order to try and make weight. He also had drunk very little water Murray had he perfect handicap to win, but failed with a capital F.

What is pretty clear is that Murray doesn’t have the power to hang at the world level and is going to need to limp back down to the domestic level to find success. I think Murray is a world beat at the Euro level. Put him in with the current EBU lightweight champion Gavin Rees and Murray wins seven days a week, 365 days a year. There’s nothing wrong with that, is there?

But my advice is for Murray not to take on any more world class fighters in the future. We’ve already seen Murray step up twice and get smacked down when he’s tried to fight world class opposition, and I don’t want to keep seeing Murray swatted left and right. He deserves better. Put him in with some nice soft opposition and let him flourish. I think Rees and Anthony Crolla are perfect fodder for Murray to get his confidence back, but only after his face heals up. He needs a good six months to recover from the Rios beating.



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