By Scott Gilfoid: In 16 days from now, England’s Martin Murray (29-1-1, 12 KOs) will be testing his skills and especially his rock-hard chin against the power of WBA Super World middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (31-0, 28 KOs) on February 21st on HBO Championship Boxing from the Salle des Étoiles, Monte Carlo, Monaco.

Murray has been known to hide behind his clam-shell guard and fail to come out from hiding when he’s stepped it up against better opposition in the past in his failed world title fights against Felix Sturm and Sergio Martinez. But if the 32-year-old Murray is going to have any chance at all in trying to beat Golovkin, then he’s going to need to open up his clam-shell defense and actually throw some punches for a change.

I mean, this isn’t a fight where Murray is going to be able to steal rounds by throwing a dozen punches after he comes out from the clam-shell to let his shots go. If Golovkin is tearing into Murray while he covers up like a sparring partner with his high clam-shell guard, I see the fight ending fairly quickly with Murray dropping in a heap of bloody flesh or him going down from a vicious body shot from Golovkin.

There’s also a chance that the referee will halt the fight if Golovkin is throwing 80 to 100 punches per round with Murray hiding behind hid clam-shell just taking the shots like a punching bag. With nothing coming back at him, Golovkin sill setup shop in front of Murray and will be getting everything he has in each body and head shot he throws. I mean, Golovkin will be winding up with every ounce of energy in his body to land shots to Murray’s midsection.

If Murray is just going to hide behind his clam-shell guard like he did against Sergio Martinez, then Golovkin will land his shots underneath the guard to the body of Murray. I know Murray has a head that can take brutal shots, but I have my doubts that he has a midsection that will be able to take the kinds of body punches that Golovkin will be throwing all night long. If Golovkin hits Murray with a liver punch, I see Murray collapsing to the canvas and laying there in agony while the referee gives him the 10 count in Monte Carlo.

Murray has already had two world title shots, and it’s unclear why the World Boxing Council decided to rank him #1 with their organizations off of wins over this lot: Sergey Khomitsky, Ishmael Tetteh, Max Bursak and Domenico Spada. The WBC could have done a better job of making Murray at least fight someone talented before green-lighting him for yet another world title shot, especially with him being a two-time failure.

If Murray is going to be getting world title shots after he faces four easy marks each time, then we could see him getting world title fights every two years with him losing each time. I think it would be better for boxing fans if the sanctioning bodies at least forced the contenders to face some decent tests before they sanctioned fights which appear to be horrible mismatches where I gets a title shot off of a handful of wins over fluff opponents. Murray should have least fought the likes of David Lemieux, Marco Antonio Rubio, Jorge Sebastian Heiland and Tureano Johnson before he got the title shot against Golovkin. If Murray could beat those four guys, then I could understand him getting yet another world title shot. But for him to be fighting for a world title after beating Bursak, Spada, Tetteh and Khomitsky, it just makes it too easy for Murray to be getting cracks at the titles.