(Martin Murray seen here using his turtle defense against Sergio Martinez) By Scott Gilfoid: #1 WBA, Martin Murray (25-1, 11 KO’s) will be meeting up with WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (28-0, 25 KO’s) in the 31-year-old Murray’s biggest fight of his career on February 1st at the Salle des etoiles, in Monte Carlo, Monaco. I wouldn’t say that this is Golovkin’s toughest fight of his career because he’s been in with Gabriel Rosado and Curtis Stevens, and I rate both of those guys as being better fighters than Murray.
The fight will be interesting to see how well Golovkin does against a large middleweight that tends to cover up a lot. With Murray’s style of hiding behind a high guard for 12 rounds, I’d be very surprised if he’ll be able to make it past the third round wit the way that he leaves his body open in focusing on covering his head.
Murray will get $500,000 for the fight, according to the Daily Mail.
We mustn’t get ahead of ourselves though, because Murray has a fight on November 23rd against a still unnamed opponent on the Carl Froch – George Groves card in Manchester, UK, and Murray will have to win that fight and get through it without suffering a debilitating injury if he wants to face Golovkin on February 1st. We can’t have Murray coming into the Golovkin fight still licking his wounds from his November 23rd bout, because the last thing we need is the fight being called off because Murray’s injuries are lingering, and we don’t need Murray yapping abut how he wasn’t 100 percent after the fight if he were to get thrashed and knocked out.
If it’s possible, Murray should cancel the fight date on November 23rd and focus on getting to the February 1st fight in one piece. It’s going to be hard enough for him because he’ll be having two consecutive training camps without any rest breaks. That’s going to make Murray tired because he’s not a spring chicken anymore at 31,. and he mind end up wearing down or suffering an injury during training camp that will force him of the Golovkin fight date.
Murray was beaten in his last fight against WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez last Apri. Murray was in a position to win the fight but he failed to throw enough punches. It was frustrating to watch Murray fight because he simply throw punches with any regularity. He should have been throwing 50 punches per round, but instead he was throwing in the teens and getting badly outworked by Martinez. To be sure, Murray blocked a lot of shots on his gloves, but the fact that Martinez was the one seen throwing nonstop punches while Murray assumed the role of what looked like a sparring partner, it left the judges with no choice but to give the victory to Martinez despite the fact that Murray was the much bigger and healthier guy in the fight. Martinez was fighting with torn cartilage in one knee and a broken left hand from the 2nd round on.
It’s unclear whether HBO will televise the fight between Murray and Golovkin. It’s not the fight that HBO wants. They want Golovkin vs. Sergio Martinez or Golovkin vs. Peter Quilln. A bout between Golovkin and Murray is a much less appealing fight, and they might be apprehensive in televising this fight when they take a look at Murray’s poor effort against Sergio last April.
If Murray chooses to go into his turtle defense for 12 rounds then I see Golovkin taking him out with a hard body shot in the first few rounds. The turtle defense only works against head hunters, not body punchers like Golovkin. For that reason, I see Murray getting stopped within three rounds.
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