Martin Murray in the crosshairs for Golovkin’s next fight

By Boxing News - 11/03/2013 - Comments

murray64By Scott Gilfoid: Interim WBA middleweight champion Martin Murray (25-1, 11 KO’s) is in the cross-hairs for WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin’s next fight in February in Monte Carlo, provided that Murray wins his next fight on December 11th against 35-year-old Australian Garth Wood (12-3-1, 8 KO’s) at the Entertainment Centre, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Murray should win that fight fairly easily to put him in position to either face Golovkin or walk away from the fight, which is what I suspect will happen. The World Boxing Association has made the 31-year-old Murray the mandatory for Golovkin, so that’s who they’ll be looking to fight in February to get it over with. But it’s going to be interesting to see if Murray agrees to take the fight or not, because in the past he’s seemed to freeze up and get tongue-tied when asked about whether he would face Golovkin. I have a feeling that Murray will opt not to take the fight with Golovkin in February or ever for that matter.

If Murray gives up his interim WBA strap, he can go look elsewhere such as the IBF strap held by Darren Barker. That would be a 50-50 fight. But if you put Murray in with Golovkin, it’ll probably be like watching a repeat of the Golovkin vs. Curtis Stevens fight we saw last night with Murray just covering up and taking punishment until getting stopped.

Murray lost a 12 round unanimous decision to an injured WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez last April in Argentina. It was a winnable fight for Murray because Sergio was fighting with a damaged knee and broken left hand that he hurt in the 2nd round. However, Murray just covered up for most of the fight and failed to let his hands go. He kept a high guard and just hid behind it for 12 rounds, and basically gave away the fight. Murray’s fighting style reminded me a lot of Joshua Clottey in his lopsided loss to Manny Pacquiao in 2010, where Clottey just covered up like a sparring partner for 12 rounds instead of going after Pacquiao the way he needed to if he wanted to get the win.

If Murray fights that way against Golovkin, if he even agrees to fight him, it’ll be brutal to watch because Murray will get royally thrashed for as long as the fight lasts. I would like to think that Murray would come to fight and would let his hands go, but in looking at how he fought against Sergio Martinez last April, I don’t think he would. I can see Murray hiding behind his guard and just trying to block shots rather than throwing punches. In that case I hope HBO doesn’t televise the fight in the United States because it might not be an entertaining enough fight to make Golovkin look good. They need to televise his fights when he’s facing someone that will be coming after him to try and mix it up, and I just don’t see that with Murray. He covers up too much and forgets about his offense.



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