By Scott Gilfoid: Britain’s Martin Murray (26-1-1, 11 KO’s) has reportedly been offered a rematch against IBF middleweight champion Felix Sturm (39-3-2, 18 KO’s), according to the Daily Mail. There’s no date or venue yet for when this fight could take place or if Murray will accept the offer.
But you have to like the timing of the offer with it coming directly after Murray pulled out of his fight against #3 WBA, Jarrod Fletcher that was scheduled to take place on the February 1st Gennady Golovkin vs. Osumanu Adama card in Monte Carlo, Monaco. That right was originally supposed to be for the vacant WBA middleweight title.
The World Boxing Association was going to elevate the current WBA champion Gennady Golovkin to that of WBA Super World middleweight champion, which would have freed up his WBA regular 160 lb. title for Murray and Fletcher to fight over. It must have been disappointing for Murray to realize that he was no longer fighting for any kind of title against Fletcher on the February 1st card.
It’s really tough luck that Murray got injured so that he couldn’t take the Fletcher card. I still haven’t heard what the actual injury is for Murray, but I guess it should be healed in time for him to get another title shot against Sturm.
For Murray, this will be his 3rd time fighting for a world title in his last 6 fights. It’s hard to believe how he keeps getting shots at world titles without success. Sturm and Murray fought to a 12 round draw in December of 2011. Murray then fought WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez for his title last year in April and lost. And now Murray appears to be on the verge of getting a rematch against Sturm for his IBF 160 lb. title.
I had Sturm beating Murray in their fight in 2011. I thought it was a clear win for Sturm, as Murray spent too much time covering up and not throwing enough punches. This was his same problem in his loss to Sergio Martinez last year. Murray has a nasty habit of just covering like a sparring partner and giving rounds away.
Sturm stopped Darren Barker in the 2nd round last year in December to capture his International Boxing Federation title.
If Murray loses to Sturm then I’d like for the sanctioning bodies to at least make it so that Murray has to fight someone with a pulse and actually beat them before putting him in position for yet another world title shot. Here are the guys that Murray has beaten since his fight with Sturm in 2011: Karim Achour, Jorge Navarro, and Sergey Khomitsky. As you can tell, Murray hasn’t exactly been going out of his way to fight some dangerous and talented contenders in between his title fights. Good God, the sanctioning bodies need to make sure that challengers are actually fighting some tough fights if they’re going to m=be ranking them at #1 like Murray is with the WBA.
Comments are closed.