By Scott Gilfoid: In just eight more days from now, WBA Super World middleweight champion and WBC interim 160lb champ Gennady Golovkin (31-0, 28 KOs) will be putting his straps on the line for his title defense against Britain’s Martin Murray (29-1-1, 12 KOs) in what Golovkin hopes will be an easy fight on February 21st at the Salle des Étoiles, Monte Carlo, Monaco.

While both Golovkin and his promoter Tom Loeffler have been quick to say that they’re not overlooking the 32-year-old Murray, it’s hard to take them at their word, as they’re both already talking about wanting to fight WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto for his title in their next fight if they can get the Puerto Rican fighter to agree to it. If not, then Cotto will either vacate or be stripped of his WBC strap for failing to defend the belt against his mandatory challenger.

Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez has done a great job of getting him ready for tough but limited fighters like Curtis Stevens, Gabe Rosado, Osumanu Adama, Daniel Geale and Marco Antonio Rubio. Those fighters all had good power and Golovkin had to be careful with them accordingly. In the case of Murray, he doesn’t have good power going for him.

Instead, he’s just a big fighter who can somehow melt down to get down to the middleweight weight limit still. Murray’s best attributes, besides his size, is his ability to defend against punches with his clam-shell high guard and his sturdy chin.

Murray has shown the ability to take head shots from guys like Sergio Martinez and Felix Sturm in the past, both of which were by far the best guys that he’s fought during his eight-year pro career. However, we really don’t know how good of a shot that Murray can take because Martinez suffered a broken left hand early in the fight. As such, Martinez was forced to fight with just his right hand for much of the fight, and he couldn’t load up on his left the way he normally does. We did see Sturm stagger Murray in the 12th round in their fight in 2011, when Murray came out from hiding behind his clam-shell guard and tried to score a knockout.

“You can’t overlook Martin Murray by any stretch of the imagination,” Loeffler said via Thaboxingvoice.com. “Abel [Sanchez] and Gennady are completely focused on that, and it’s my job as the promoter to look forward and continue to plan his career…He’s become one of the biggest stars in boxing right now, even though we can argue and say he hadn’t had that ‘big name’ fight.”

A knockout win for Golovkin over Murray won’t do much to enhance Golovkin’s status in the boxing world, but it will keep him moving forward to a much, much bigger fight against Cotto or for the vacant WBC middleweight title if Cotto decides it’s safer to vacate his WBC strap rather than risk his hide fighting Golovkin. Murray, you hate to say, is really little more than a formality for Golovkin before he faces the bigger names in the middleweight division.