By Scott Gilfoid: While many people in the boxing world recognize WBA Super World middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (31-0, 28 KOs) as being near super human in strength and talent, his opponent for February 21st, Martin Murray (29-1-1, 12 KOs), sees him as very human and very beatable.
Murray thinks he’s got what it takes to end Golovkin’s seven-year knockout streak and give him his first loss of his boxing career when the two of them face each other in two half weeks from now on 2/21 at the Salle des Étoiles, Monte Carlo, Monaco.
There’s likely going to be a fairly large army of loyal Murray supporters from the UK who will be making the long trek from that country in order to see him fight and cheer him on to victory. However, it’s going to be difficult for crowd applause alone to give Murray the talent needed for him to go onto victory.
You can only do so much on adrenalin that you get from the crowd. If you don’t have the talent needed to get the win, then the crowd’s approval probably isn’t going to be nearly enough to get you the victory.
“It’s a tough fight; I’m under no illusions. Golovkin is a punching power machine, but I have the tools to beat him,” Murray said. “I expect it will be tough, and I’ll need to go through pain, but I’m prepared for that, whatever it takes.”
By Murray saying that he’s prepared to do whatever it takes, you have to wonder what precisely he’s talking about. Does he mean he’s going to cover up for the first 10 rounds and hope that by blocking Golovkin’s punches that he’ll eventually run out of gas so that Murray can attack him in the final two rounds, or does Murray mean he’s going to fight Golovkin toe-to-toe to try to get the win? Either way, it’s probably going to spell defeat for Murray, because he doesn’t have the kind of punching power needed for him to get in the trenches with a talent like Golovkin. That’s like getting in the water with a great white shark and trying to do battle with it. If Murray tries to slug with Golovkin, he could find it very tough trying to stay upright for long.
“Golovkin has two hands like me, but he’s not unbeatable. I’m certainly not going to get into the ring fearing him. Never,” Murray said.
This looks like Murray is giving himself some self-help talk here with him trying to convince himself that Golovkin isn’t unbeatable. To be sure, Golovkin isn’t unbeatable. We saw him struggle to beat Kassim Ouma, and we saw him take big shots against Gabriel Rosado and Daniel Geale. But those guys all had power, and they were able to land some nice shots.
Murray doesn’t have much in the way of punching power, so his job is going to be all the harder because of that. Murray’s best chance of getting a victory on February 21st is if Golovkin suffers a hand, arm, and shoulder or ankle injury. In the absence of an injury, it’s going to be awfully tough for Murray because he’ll need to land a lucky punch that Golovkin doesn’t see in order for him to knock him out. Murray doesn’t have the kind of punching power to beat Golovkin by a conventional knockout.
Murray’s power is more like Grzegorz Proksa. In fact, Murray compares a lot with Proksa in talent. The only difference is Proksa has been in with Golovkin and Sergio Mora and lost to both of those guys. Murray has lost to the best guys he’s fought such as Sergio Martinez, and a controversial draw against Felix Sturm in 2011 in a fight that I scored as a victory for Sturm.
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