By Scott Gilfoid: #4 WBC, #6 IBF, #13 WBO, Martin Murray (27-1-1, 12 KO’s) defeated little known journeyman Ishmael Tetteh (29-11-2, 16 KO’s) by a 7th round stoppage on Wednesday night in a less than spectacular performance at the Emperors Palace, Kempton Park, Gauteng, South Africa. Tetteh didn’t come out for the 7th round. However, it’s hard to understand why Tetteh didn’t continue fighting because he was the one landing most of the punches in the fight.
Tetteh and Murray had a bad head clash in the 5th, and it was bad enough to where Tetteh went down on the canvas. It’s possible that Tetteh was still feeling the effects of the head clash in the 6th and that could be a reason he chose not to come out for the 7th.
Murray didn’t look any better against Tetteh than he did in his previous two fights against Sergey Khomitsky and Sergio Martinez. Instead of learning from those two efforts that he can’t just hide behind his clam-shell defense like a sparring partner, Murray plodded around the ring all night with Tetteh with his guard held high and mostly just looking to block shots rather than throw punches.
Murray lost to an injured Sergio Martinez because he failed to let his hands go, and he did the same thing with Tetteh and Khomitsky. It’s kind of baffling but it could be that Murray either doesn’t have the engine to throw more than a few token punches each round without gassing or he’s gone a chin problem. Either way, there was no improvement in his performance from those fights.
Murray is expected to get a title shot against WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin in 2015, although I’m not really sure why he would be given that he still hasn’t faced a good middleweight since his failed attempt at winning a world title against Sergio. I mean, it would be a situation where Golovkin would be picking Murray out for an optional title defense rather than it being a mandatory defense because Murray isn’t ranked high enough to get a title shot against Golovkin by the mandatory route.
If Murray is just going to hide behind his clam shell against Golovkin the way Joshua Clottey hid behind his clam shell against Manny Pacquiao, you can expect Murray to last 2-3 rounds at best before Golovkin aims a shot at his unprotected ribcage and sends him down on the canvas for the 10 count. A high card won’t work against a talent like Golovkin. You need to bring more to the table than to just cover up like a walking punching bag all night long without throwing many punches.
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