By Scott Gilfoid: Earlier today, WBA Super World middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (31-0, 28 KOs) and his opponent Martin Murray (29-1-1, 12 KOs) made weight for their fight this Saturday night at the Salle des Etoiles in Monte Carlo. Golovkin weighed in at 158.9 pounds and looked in superb shape as usual.
Golovkin looks very close to his fighting weight. As for Murray, he weighed in at 159.9 pounds and he looked a little emaciated. Murray is expected to rehydrate into the 170s. As big as Murray looked a month ago, I wouldn’t be surprised if he rehydrated into the 180s. We’re probably looking at Murray coming into the fight with at least a 10 pound weight advantage over Golovkin when the two fighters step inside the ring on February 21st.
The Golovkin-Murray fight will be televised on HBO Championship Boxing this Saturday at 5:45 p.m. ET/PT.
Murray is kind of in a tough position in this fight, because he’s got to make up his mind whether he wants to play it safe by fighting to survive using his clam-shell high guard for the full 12 rounds, or whether he wants to try and win the fight by punching with Golovkin.
It’s a tough position Murray is in, because if he comes out from hiding behind the clam-shell guard he uses, he’s going to open himself up to getting knocked out by the powerful Golovkin. But on the flipside, if Murray hides behind his high guard like he did in his loss to Sergio Martinez and his 12 round draw against Felix Sturm, then he will surely lose.
Murray has arguably fought like a sparring partner the two times he’s stepped it up during his career against Martinez and Sturm by him covering up rather than letting his hands go. If Murray does nothing other than hide behind his clam-shell, he’s going to likely get obliterated in 3 to 6 rounds. Golovkin likes fighting opposition that hide behind their guards, because he likes to throw body shot and he’s one of the best body punchers in the business.
If Murray hides out in a foxhole hoping that he can drag Golovkin into the later rounds, we’re probably going to see Golovkin take Murray out with a liver shot like he did with Matthew Macklin in 2012.
Murray might choose to use his clam-shell against Golovkin thinking that the Kazakhstan fighter won’t throw to the body. After all, when you look at Golovkin’s recent fights against Marco Antonio Rubio, Curtis Stevens, Daniel Geale and Osumanu Adama, Golovkin really didn’t throw a lot of body shots in those fights. Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez kept telling him to go downstairs with body shots, but Golovkin rarely applied what Sanchez was telling him to do.
My guess is Murray will go ahead and use his clam-shell guard in this fight thinking that Golovkin might not throw many body shots. If Murray can tire Golovkin out by blocking his attempts at throwing head shots, then it’s possible Murray could take the fight to him in the second half of the bout to squeak out a narrow win. However, Golovkin has obviously been training with the focus of going to the body of Murray, so it’s quite possible he’ll throw a lot more body shots in this fight compared to what he’s done recently.
Murray won’t stand a chance on Saturday night if Golovkin attacks his body, because the clam-shell is only designed to guard against head shots, and it’s totally ineffective to body shots.
Murray has been getting away with using the clam-shell due to him fighting a lot of European based fighters who tend to throw exclusively head shots rather than body shots. Golovkin could totally unravel Murray’s high guard on Saturday by attacking him nonstop to the body until he falls to the canvas in pain.
Official weights:
Gennady Golovkin 158.9 vs. Martin Murray 159.9
Hekkie Budler 104.85 vs. Jesus Silvestre 105.35
Lee Haskins 118.05 vs. Omar Lamiri 116.45
Hughie Fury 232.45 vs. Andriy Rudenko 243.30
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