(Photo credit: HBO) By Scott Gilfoid: Former two-time world title challenger George Groves sees challenger Martin Murray (29-1-1, 12 KOs) giving WBA Super World middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (31-0, 28 KOs) one of the toughest fights of his career this Saturday night at the Salle des Étoiles, Monte Carlo, Monaco.
Groves sees Murray’s size, strength, intelligence and his defense as factors that will keep him in the fight. Groves definitely doesn’t see Murray getting obliterated like many of Golovkin’s past opponents have been.
“I think it will definitely be one of Golovkin’s hardest fights. I don’t think Murray will crumble or get taken out early. I don’t see Murray going that way,” Groves said via Livefight.com. “Murray is not the sort of opponent you can take lightly. He can change and adapt to a certain degree.”
Unfortunately, we’ve not see Murray fight anyone that was young and good. We’ve seen Murray lose to an old fighter in Sergio Martinez in 2013, and we’ve seen Murray fight to a draw against Felix Sturm. I don’t personally see Sturm as a good fighter. I think there’s a number of better fighters than him in the middleweight division right now, such as Golovkin, Daniel Jacobs, Andy Lee, Tureano Johnson, Peter Quillin, Curtis Stevens, Hassan N’Dam, Billy Joe Saunders, David Lemieux, Chris Eubank Jr, Miguel Cotto, Jermall Charlo, Jermell Charlo, Daniel Geale, Dmitry Chudinov and Willie Monroe. This is just a short list.
I think there’s a number of other middleweights that could beat Sturm a well. At any rate, the fact that Murray couldn’t even beat Sturm tells me that he won’t be giving Golovkin a good fight on Saturday night. I had Murray losing to Sturm in their fight in 2011, and that obviously tells you everything you need to know about Murray.
“We’ve seen him [Murray] fight up close with a tight guard and not give much away, and we’ve seen him box at mid-range and long-range behind a good jab and straight punches,” Groves said. “He also looks like he’s got good physical strength, so he’ll be able to stand toe-to-toe when he needs to.”
I’ve only see Murray fight in close against just one of his opponent during his eight-year pro career and that was against Italian Domenico Spada last October. However, Spada had a very, very poor inside game, so it’s not as if Murray was under any kind of duress. Spada was not a Golovkin type body puncher, and you really can’t use that as an example of Murray fighting on the inside because he didn’t have to worry about anything big being landed.
Groves says that Murray will be able “to stand toe-to-toe when he needs to” against Golovkin. Well, the reality is that Murray is going to need to be able to stand toe-to-toe for three minutes of every round in this fight, because he’s going to be dealing with nonstop pressure from Golovkin.
Groves says that Murray will be able to stand and trade with Golovkin when he needs to, but the reality is he’s going to need to be able to do that all the time in the fight. Unfortunately, I just don’t see Murray having the power, chin or the defensive capability of doing that. Yeah, he can block head shots with his high guard, but he’s not going to be able to block the incoming body shots that Golovkin will be throwing all night at him.
I think we’re going to see Murray reduced to a pile of rubble long before the 5th round on Saturday night due to the heavy bombardment of body shots he’s going to be taking from Golovkin in this fight. Murray will have his high guard up to protect his head, but his body will be wide open for Golovkin’s shots.
Comments are closed.