By Scott Gilfoid: #2 WBC, #3 IBF Martin Murray (28-1-1 12 KO’s) defeated #8 WBA Max Bursak (29-3-1, 12 KO’s) by a dull 12 round unanimous decision to capture the WBC Silver middleweight title on Saturday night at the Casino de Monte Carlo Salle Medecin, Monte Carlo, Monaco. The final judges’ scores were 117-112, 119-109, and 119-109.
Murray was hit a lot in the fight by the shorter, smaller, weaker Bursak, but due to the Ukrainian’s lack of power, it enabled Murray to win most of the rounds based on being the bigger guy. Bursak had no power whatsoever, and his lack of size was a real hindrance for him in this fight.
In the 2nd half of the fight, Murray began to use uppercuts to catch Bursak again and again. It looked good, but Murray didn’t have enough power to plant the Ukrainian on the canvas despite catching him again and again with that same punch.
This was a fight where neither guy looked good. Yeah, Murray got the win, but he was hardly impressive in the fight. He was a little better than the guy he was in with, but he was light years away from the talent that far better middleweights in the division have like Miguel Cotto, Peter Quillin and of course Gennady Golovkin. Those guys are all far too powerful for Murray, and just much better fighters in each case.
Murray will be back in the ring on October 24th in Monaco against an opponent still to be determined. He might face IBF middleweight champion Sam Soliman if his promoter Rodney Berman can set up the fight. Soliman will be a tough fight for Murray due to the movement that he uses and the different punching angles.
Murray said yesterday that he’d like to be as popular as Carl Froch in the UK, but this performance tonight showed one of the reasons why Murray hasn’t been able to get to the next level to win over the fans. He’s just not a big puncher. He’s got decent power, but he’s not at the same level Froch is at for his division.
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In a mostly one-sided fight, #7 WBA Youi Kalenga (20-1, 13 KO’s) defeated #6 WBA Mateusz Masternak (32-2, 23 KO’s) by a 12 round split decision. The final judges’ scores were 116-112, 115-113 for Kalenga, and 115-113 for Masternak.
Kalenga totally outworked Masternak during the first 8 rounds, but in the last 4 rounds, he faded a little bit. However, Kalenga still was by far the much busier fighter, as Masternak was mostly just taking shots and occasionally throwing an accurate shot. It was hard to understand what Masternak’s problem was, because he needed to throw more punches but it was all he could do to throw a small of handful of shots each round.
By the 10th, Masternak was sporting a big lump on the right side of his face courtesy of the big right hands that the heavily muscled Kalenga was nailing him with all night.
I can’t say I was very impressed with Masternak’s performance. For a guy with the amount of hype he has about him, he looked very, very basic and not world class at all.
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