By Scott Gilfoid: #2 WBC, #3 IBF, #13 WBO Martin Murray will be fighting this Saturday night against #8 WBA Max Bursak (29-2-1, 12 KO’s) in a 12 round bout at the Casino de Monte Carlo Salle Medecin, Monte Carlo, Monaco. This is yet another tune-up fight for the idea of improving the 31-year-old Murray for another world title shot.
Bursak lost his last fight to Jarrod Fletcher last February in a fight where he looked horrible. Bursak also has a 12 round lopsided decision loss to Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam to years ago in 2012.
Why Murray wanted to fight a guy coming off of a loss is unclear. I mean, where’s the gain if you know you’re fighting a guy who was schooled by Fletcher? For me, that would kill motivation I would have in fighting the guy, and I would tell my promoter ‘No thanks, find someone else.’
Thus far, Murray have been given two world title shots in the last three years, and he could have had another one against WBA champion Gennady Golovkin, but the fight didn’t happen. Now Murray is getting ready for a title shot against possibly IBF champion Sam Soliman. That’s the only guy Murray can fight right now because he probably won’t be traveling to the United States to fight WBO middleweight champion Peter Quillin, and WBC champion Miguel Cotto is a no go because Cotto won’t waste his time fighting someone like Murray, who casual boxing fans in the U.S aren’t familiar with. Murray probably won’t ever fight Golovkin, because that would be a likely end in an early knockout loss for Murray.
Murray recently struggled to a controversial 8 round decision win over Sergey Khomitsky last December. A lot of boxing fans had Khomitsky winning that fight. Whatever the case, Murray looked really bad in that fight. His promoter dropped him down a couple of levels in terms of class in matching him against someone named Ishmael Tetteh in his last fight. Murray stopped the guy in the 6th round last April, but he didn’t look great in that fight either.
Murray had a chance to capture the WBC middleweight title against the aging champion Sergio Martinez, who fought with an injured right knee and a broken left hand. Even with Martinez badly hurt and looking all of 39, Murray came up short in losing by a 12 round decision defeat. It was a crushing defeat for Murray because Martinez was ready to be picked off at that point in his career due to the negative effects of aging and injuries.
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