By Scott Gilfoid: Former Gennady Golovkin knockout victim Matthew Macklin has serious doubts whether British fighter Martin Murray (29-1-1, 12 KOs) will be able to pull off an upset of the hard hitting Golovkin on February 21st in Monte Carlo.
Macklin notes that Murray doesn’t have much in the way of punching power, and he thinks that he’ll likely go to pieces if he actually tries to win the fight instead of him just looking to survive.
Golovkin had Macklin looking like a scared rabbit in their fight in 2012. Before the fight, Macklin had talked a big game as if he was going to KO Golovkin. What happened instead was Golovkin nailing Macklin with a few huge shots in the 1st round and from that point on, Macklin ran from Golovkin from the word go.
Eventually, Golovkin caught up with Macklin in the 3rd round and nailed him with a body shot. The punch put Macklin down on the canvas in pain as he clutched his midsection and grimaced in exquisite pain.
“Murray has never really been bashed up before, either,” Macklin said via Irishboxing.com. “He knows how to look after himself at the top level. I don’t think Murray can beat Golovkin and I don’t want to romanticize his chances; I’d be surprised if he lasted the distance. Martin has a very tight defence,” Macklin said.
As good as Murray’s defense is, he’s going to be getting hit with a lot of hard shots from Golovkin that are going to go around Murray’s guard and to his midsection. Those are going to be unprotected areas all night long. Heck, even the shots that hit Murray’s guard is likely going to cause him trouble by the g-force coming through his gloves and arms.
With the kind of punching power Golovkin has, it really doesn’t matter if his shots are blocked on the arms and gloves of Murray. He’s still going to transfer his power to the head of Murray, and that’s obviously going to be painful for Murray to take.
“He [Golovkin] also hits very hard. He can open up even the tightest of defences,” Macklin said.
To be sure, if Golovkin can split Murray’s guard, he’s going to make this a very quick night. Murray puts up his clam-shell guard and he tries to take away the punching target of his opponents with his big super middleweight-sized arms, but Golovkin will give him problems with his power nonetheless.
Golovkin has knocked out every opponent he’s faced since 2008, and it’s going to take a minor miracle for Murray to break that long streak.
This is going to be a real mismatch unless Murray can show some power that he’s never had in any of his fights before. But even if Murray were to suddenly develop some power overnight at 32, he would still have to open up his clam-shell to throw his shots. The thing is once Murray’s clam-shell guard is open; Golovkin is going to be able to find his chin and his midsection to take him out.
It would be really disappointing if Murray fights timidly the entire fight like he did in his loss to former WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez in 2013. This would be the third time that Murray has stepped up to the plate to fight for a world title and he’s failed each time.