Martin Murray no longer with Hatton Promotions

By Boxing News - 02/22/2014 - Comments

murray64By Scott Gilfoid: Hatton Promotions sent out a press statement today saying that middleweight contender Martin Murray (26-1-1, 11 KO’s) and them have parted ways. They say that there were offers for Murray to fight WBA 160 lb champion Gennady Golovkin and/or a rematch against IBF champion Felix Sturm, but Murray wouldn’t pull the trigger to ink a contract with either of them. They felt that those offers were only going to be there for a limited time before these two champions moved on and found other opponents.

It’s unclear who Murray will sign with next, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he signed with Matchroom Sport and ended up being promoted by Eddie Hearn. I seriously doubt Murray will ever accept a fight against Golovkin, because that would be pretty much the equivalent of Murray signing up for a knockout loss. It’s going to be Sturm all the way for Murray in a rematch. Murray got outworked by Sturm in fighting to a 12 round draw three years ago in Mannheim, Germany. It was a winnable fight for Murray, but like in his fight against Sergio Martinez, Murray spent a good deal of the bout with his gloves glued to the front of his head playing it safe.

Don’t know what the problem is for Murray, but he just doesn’t seem to be capable of letting his hands go like good fighters do. I mean, Murray reminds me of a larger version of Joshua Clottey with his high guard, clam shell defense, and his low work rate. Against weak opposition, Murray doesn’t need to throw a lot of shots to beat them, but to beat the likes of Golovkin, Sturm and Martinez, you have to actually throw punches in order to have your arm raised. You don’t just get the win because you’ve blocked a lot of shots for 12 rounds without throwing anything back.

Under the idea scenario, Murray will agree to fight Sturm at some point in the future, hopefully soon for his sake, and then beat him in Germany. Murray would then milk the IBF title in domestic fights against Andy Lee and Matthew Macklin. Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if even Darren Barker came out of retirement to get a piece of the action bad hip and all.

I can definitely see Murray signing with Hearn with him seeing Murray as a potential gold mine to take over for the aging Carl Froch, who is reaching the end of the line with his career. It would work if Murray was good enough to actually beat any of the middleweight champions, but I don’t see him beating any of the current champions. I mean, all it would take is Murray to pick up one title, and he could milk that baby for over a year and make good money before he has to make his mandatory defense.

The IBF’s top 10 contenders are pretty weak with Sam Soliman, Daniel Geale, Patrick Nielsen, Predrag Radosevic, David Lemieux and Daniel Jacobs being the top contenders for that belt. If Murray could win the IBF title, he’d have clear sailing for at least 2-3 years before the IBF ranks someone good enough to whip him. I don’t think Murray would doing something crazy like agreeing to fight Golovkin in a unification bout. Why do that when Murray could milk the IBF title.



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