By Scott Gilfoid: #1 WBA Martin Murray (26-1-1, 11 KO’s) had to battle hard tonight to barely beat journeyman Sergey Khomitsky (28-10-2, 11 KO’s) by an unimpressive and very close 8 round points decision at the ExCel Arena, in London, United Kingdom.
Referee Robert Williams scored it 77-75. I think it was pretty much an even fight throughout. Khomitsky was the faster guy, and he landed the cleaner shots all throughout the fight.
Murray looked like his arms were filled with lead, because he just wasn’t letting his shots go. When he did throw his punches, he was slow and weak looking. Murray had the same sparring partner look to him that he had in his loss to Sergio Martinez last April in Argentina. Murray covered up too much tonight and didn’t throw enough punches.
After the fight Murray’s promoter Ricky Hatton proudly announced that Murray will be fighting or a world title in February against one of the middleweight world champions. Hatton wouldn’t say which champion it’ll be, but it’s the choices are down to Felix Sturm or Peter Quillin. WBC champion Sergio Martinez won’t be fighting until June, so he’s out. WBA champion Gennady Golovkin is already scheduled to fight on February 1st against Osumanu Adama. That leaves Quillin or Sturm. My guess is that’ll be Sturm that gets the fight. Sturm made easy work of former IBF middleweight champion Darren Barker last Saturday night, and Sturm is probably excited about getting another easy win over another soft target. I hate to say it but Murray will lose to Sturm. I know they fought to a controversial draw in 2011, but Sturm has improved and Murray looks to have slipped a notch.
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In a fight that had a laughable ending, British lightweight Kevin Mitchell (35-2, 25 KO’s) teed off on an injured Karim El Ouazghari (15-4-2, 4 KO’s) in stopping him in the 9th round. With El Ouazghari walking forward holding his right biceps and looking at the referee to show him that he injured his arm, Mitchell just went after El Ouazghari tagging him with a left and right hand to drop him in the corner. It looked totally unsporting what Mitchell did and quite funny that the referee didn’t step in to halt the fight before Mitchell started nailing the injured fighter. I don’t understand for a second why Mitchell felt he had to start hitting El Ouazghari, because the guy was clearly injured and not in the position to throw punches, yet he still nailed him.
Mitchell said after the fight “I wasn’t mature enough last time I fought for a world title. Now I’m mature enough.”
I don’t think Mitchell is even close to being good enough to beat any of the world champions in the lightweight division. El Ouazghari was giving Mitchell problems in this fight, and this guys isn’t even any good. Mitchell will be destroyed if he fights IBF champion Miguel Vazquez, who he’s been mentioned in possibly fighting next.
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EBU welterweight champion Leonard Bundu (30-0-2, 11 KO’s) blasted out Britain’s Lee Purdy (20-5-1, 13 KO’s) in the 12th round. The 39-year-old Bundu dropped Purdy with a big right hand to the head after having stunned him with a nice right to the jaw in the 12th round. After Purdy got up, Bundo nailed Purdy with shots until the referee Juergen Langos halted the fight at 2:53 of the round. Purdy took a pounding in the fight and was lucky he didn’t get knocked out earlier in the fight.
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Other action on tonight’s card:
Floyd Moore TKO 4 Ryan Taylor
Tyler Goodjohn pts 10 Cassius Connor
Jamie McDonnell pts 8 Abigail Medina
Anthony Ogogo pts 6 Dan Blackwell
Paul Smith pts 6 Jamie Ambler
Khalid Yafai TKO 4 Ashley Lane
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