By Scott Gilfoid: In less than a month from now 32-year-old Martin Murray (29-1-1, 12 KOs) will be stepping up a level to take on what is clearly the biggest test of his career in facing knockout artist Gennady Golovkin (31-0, 28 KOs) for his WBA Super World middleweight title on February 21st at the Salle des Étoiles, Monte Carlo, Monaco.
It could be all but impossible for Murray to be able to take more than 3-4 rounds of punishment against Golovkin in this fight. Murray has good punch resistance, but he’s going to be getting hit in the head and body by arguably the hardest hitter in the division in Golovkin and that’s going to make it tough on Murray to upright for long.
Murray has stepped up a level before against Sergio Martinez in 2013, but he failed in losing a 12 round decision despite the fact that Martinez was fighting with torn cartilage in his right knee and a broken left hand. With all those handicaps, Martinez was still able to beat Murray simply by being the busier fighter of the two.
Golovkin is cruising into this fight with seven consecutive years of knockouts. The last guy that went the distance with Golovkin was in 2008. Those knockouts have come because of Golovkin’s major power. He makes it nearly impossible to go the distance with him even when his opponents are just looking to survive. Golovkin cuts off the ring on his opponents and knocks them out with vicious shots.
Murray is known for his ability to out-box his opponents rather than bludgeoning them to the canvas the way Golovkin does. However, Murray is going to need to be able to take 12 rounds of punishment if he wants to have a chance of beating Golovkin on February 21st.
It’s basically out of the question that Murray will be able to score a knockout against a guy like Golovkin because Murray lacks the needed power for him to get a KO. This means that Murray is going to need to take 12 rounds of big head and body shots by Golovkin for him to have a chance of getting a decision. I don’t really like the idea of Murray being able to take
Golovkin has recent wins over Daniel Geale, Osumanu Adama, Curtis Stevens and Matthew Macklin. Those were all KO wins for Golovkin. None of those guys came close to going the full distance.
As for Murray, he has recent wins over Domenico Spada, Max Bursak, Ishmael Tetteh and Sergey Khomitsky. The win over Khomitsky was a controversial one, as Murray appeared to lose the fight but was given an 8 round decision.
The difference in their recent competition is pretty shocking. While Golovkin has been taking on world level contenders, Murray has been pretty much facing lower level fringe contenders or 2nd tier guys. This means that when he gets in the ring with Golovkin on February 21st, Murray will be taking a monstrous leap up in competition, and I doubt he’ll be ready.
Comments are closed.