By Scott Gilfoid: After coming up short last month in getting stopped in the 11th round in his fight against WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (32-0, 29 KOs) on February 21st, #4 WBC Martin Murray (29-2-1, 12 KOs) says he’d like to get another shot at fighting Golovkin, but this time super middleweight.
Murray, 32, believes it would be a different fight if he were to take the 5’10 ½” Golovkin at 168, presumably because he wouldn’t have to struggle to take the weight off like he did in cutting down to 160.
Murray has had three shots at world titles in the middleweight division, he’s failed to win a world title. He still believes he has opportunities in this fight class, but he thinks he would have a lot of chances at 168 as well if he were to move up. Murray seems torn about whether he should move up or not.
He’d like another fight against Golovkin or one of the other middleweight champions, but it’s unclear whether that’ll happen. Murray would likely have to win a number of fights, and wait a while before he’d be given yet another title shot.
“I know I’d make a better super middleweight and I’d like to fight Golovkin again at that weight,” Murray said via Livefight.com. “The WBC is obviously Miguel Cotto and he’s not going to fight Golovkin, and he’s not going to fight me either. Hopefully I can get the big fights at middleweight. It’s whether I can get another opportunity at a world title at middleweight.”
It seems to me that Murray has had a heck of a lot of chances to get title shots at 160, and it might be that he’s going to need to wait this time. The question is how much longer can the 6’1” Murray keep boiling down to fight at middleweight? Murray looked like a full super middleweight or light heavyweight on the night that he fought Golovkin.
As big as Murray is, he might be better fighting guys his own size at super middleweight. The problem is Murray lacks punching power and hand speed. If he gets put in the ring with the likes of WBC super middleweight champion Anthony Dirrell, WBO champ Arthur Abraham or the soon to be IBF super middleweight champion Andre Dirrell, it could be bad for Murray. Those guys hit too hard, and the Dirrell brothers are just too fast for Murray.
I imagine Murray would jump at the chance to fight WBA champion Carl Froch if he were interested in fighting him. But unfortunately I don’t see that fight happening. Murray’s losses to Golovkin and Sergio Martinez likely will make it impossible for him to get a title shot against Froch. It wouldn’t be a big fight either, so I don’t see that happening in this lifetime.
It may just be that Murray has exhausted his attempts at getting world title shots. I think for him to get another title shot in the future, he’s likely going to need to become the mandatory challenger for one of the champions, whether that be at middleweight or super middleweight.
Despite being knocked out by Golovkin, Murray wasn’t wowed by his punching power. Murray had this to say about Golovkin’s punching power via espn.co.uk:
“To be honest, and I know it might sound a bit daft because I was up and down like a yo-yo, I thought he was going to hit a bit harder than he did. It wasn’t so much his punching power, which is strong – don’t get me wrong, he hits well.”
Murray’s constant movement and clinching kept him from taking Golovkin’s shots with full force. Had Murray stood in the pocket more in the fight instead of moving and holding, I think he might have had more to say about Golovkin’s punching power. Either way, Murray was knocked out by Golovkin, and he’s the one who is trying to rebuild his career now.
Comments are closed.