Hatton wants Sturm to give Martin Murray a rematch – Why should he?

By Boxing News - 01/08/2012 - Comments

Image: Hatton wants Sturm to give Martin Murray a rematch - Why should he?By Scott Gilfoid: Promoter Ricky Hatton is urging WBA Super World middleweight champion Felix Sturm (36-2-2, 15 KO’s) to give his man Martin Murray (23-0-1, 10 KO’s) a rematch so that he can try and prove that he’s the better fighter after Murray failed in his title shot last month in fighting to a 12 round draw against the 32-year-old Sturm in Mannheim, Germany.

Murray, 29, screwed up by getting rocked repeatedly by Sturm in the 12th round as Sturm lit into him and had Murray stumbling around at the end. If Murray wanted the fight that was his golden opportunity but he was getting knocked silly by Sturm.

Now Hatton is asking Sturm to do the right thing and give his fighter Murray another chance? Why should he? Murray had his shot and he didn’t do enough. Since there’s no real money in a Murray fight, there’s no point in Sturm wasting his time by fighting the Brit again. He’s done, so now it’s on to the next one. Murray is still ranked high by the World Boxing Association at No.4. My advice for Murray and Hatton is to have Murray fight #1 ranked Sebastian Zbik, #3 Andy Lee, #6 Gzegorz Proksa and #7 Peter Quillin.

If Murray beat all those guys, then, yeah, I think he deserves a rematch with Sturm. But if he loses to them, which is pretty much what I see happening, then Murray gets no rematch and goes to the bottom of the division. That’s kind of where I see Murray right now. I don’t see him as a legit #4 guy. He’s more like #14 or #15, and that’ll be proven if he faces any of those guys, but you know and I know that Murray won’t be put in with any of those fighters. He’ll simply go back to fighting the 2nd tier fodder that he did to build up his inflated previously unbeaten record in the first place, and all that will do is delay Murray’s time for a second world title shot. There’s two ways of getting a title shot: You can take the soft path by fighting scrubs for two to three years until you get your shot, which is what Murray did or you can fight the very best fighters and get your shot in a real hurry. The danger there is if you don’t actually have the talent to beat those guys, then you get smacked around and put in your place at the bottom of the division under the best of circumstances. Under the world of circumstances, you end up out of the top 15 and are left fighting it out with other 2nd tier fighters.

So it’s nice that Hatton wants his man Murray to get another crack at Sturm’s title, but that’s not how it’s done. Murray isn’t important to Sturm because he won’t bring in the big bucks like a fight against Arthur Abraham. Sturm won’t waste time fighting Murray again until he becomes Sturm’s mandatory challenger and he’s forced to fight him. If I’m Hatton, I’d put Murray in with those fighters I’ve mentioned and if Murray can beat them all, he gets another shot. If not, then he goes to the bottom of the list. If he can’t beat those guys then there was no point in him getting the WBA belt in the first place when he would simply lose in his next couple of fights.



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