By Scott Gilfoid: Former three time world title challenger Martin Murray (29-2-1, 12 KOs) weighed in successfully on Thursday for his super middleweight debut on Friday against little known George Beroshvili (19-5-2, 12 KOs) at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, UK. Murray weighed in at 12st 4lbs 4oz, and his overmatched opponent Beroshvili came in at 11st 13lbs.
Murray, 32, recently signed on with Eddie Hearn and his Matchroom Sport stable. He’s hoping that he can be built up slowly by Hearn and eventually matched up against the likes of Carl Froch, James DeGale and George Groves.
Whether Murray gets any of those fights will depend largely on the success of those fighters in their bouts. You can kind of rule Froch entirely, because he appears to be on his way out of the sport, but DeGale and Groves are possibilities. However, if Groves loses his fight against WBC super middleweight champion Badou Jack in August, and DeGale gets beaten in his first defense of his IBF title this year, then I think it would be doubtful that Hearn would be able to match Murray against those fighters until they’ve rebuilt their careers.
At Murray’s age, he doesn’t have three to four years to wait while Groves and DeGale are slowly reassembled at the assembly line to fix the mechanical flaws in their games. Heck, by the time Hearn matches Murray up against those two fighters, Murray will likely be in his mid-30s, and starting to show gray.
“This is going to be a really tough fight,” Murray said about the Beroshvili fight via IFL TV. “The bigger picture is the bigger fights. This fight is just me establishing myself at super middleweight and building from there. I’ve never been built right in the UK. When those big fights come along, they’re at the right time.”
There is no question that Murray’s career hasn’t been built right. When you see fighters like DeGale and Groves, neither of which is anything special, getting more publicity than Murray, then it just tells you that Murray hasn’t been built up right. But it doesn’t matter though because Murray has failed every time he’s fought for a world title, and that tells you that he’s not cut out to be a champion type fighter. DeGale is a champion, but I don’t see him staying there for any length of time unless Hearn matches him wisely by keeping him away from certain fighters like the Dirrell brothers, and of course Andre Ward.
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#3 WBC super middleweight contender Callum Smith (16-0, 12 KOs) made weight for his fight against Christopher Rebrasse (23-3-3, 6 KOs). Smith weighed in at 11st 13lbs, while Rebrasse came in at 11st 13lbs 12oz. Smith needs a victory in this fight to keep in line for an eventual title shot against the WBC title holder Badou Jack. Smith is holding out hope that Groves defeats Jack so that he can get the bigger fight and likely bigger money fight. There’s a lot of ifs involved though, and I think it’s more of a pipe dream at this time rather than reality. Smith has the advantage in power over the recently beaten Rebrasse. Hearn is being very careful with Smith by not putting him in with someone that would likely beat him like Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Sakio Bika, Gilberto Ramirez and the Dirrell brothers.
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Cruiserweight contender Tony Bellew (23-2-1, 14 KOs) weighed in at 14st 7lbs for his 10 round bout against Ivica Bacurin (22-7-1, 12 KOs). It’s a stay busy fight for Bellew to keep him sharp until he gets a world title shot against IBF cruiserweight champion Yoan Pablo Hernandez. Bacurin weighed in at 14st 7lbs 8oz. Bellew should win this fight without any problems. If he loses, then he has some hard decisions to make about his career. Does he burns off the blubber and go back down to light heavyweight or does he pack it in and call it a career? Frankly, I think Bellew is making a mistake in fighting at cruiserweight, because no way is he going to beat the top champions – or the contenders – in the weight class.
Bellew has yet to face a good cruiserweight since moving up in weight in 2014. I don’t think it would go well at all for Bellew if he were matched up against the following top contenders at cruiserweight: Olesandr Usyk, Krzystof Wlodarczyk, Rakhim Chakhkiev, Ola Afolabi, Thabiso Mchunu, Dmitry Kudryashov and Ilunga Makabu. I wonder why Hearn isn’t matching Bellew up against any of these fighters. I mean, I’d like to see Bellew face at least one of them before he’s given a world title shot against Hernandez. In the best possible world, Bellew should have to fight one of those guys, preferably Usyk or Makbu, before getting a world title fight, don’t you think?
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Undefeated super middleweight contender Rocky Fielding (20-0, 11 KOs) weighed in at 11st 13lbs for his 12 round fight against middleweight journeyman Brian Vera (23-0, 14 KOs) for the vacant WBC International super middleweight title. Vera weighed in at 12st. It’s unclear why Fielding is fighting a middleweight for a super middleweight strap. Shouldn’t Fielding be fighting super middleweights? It doesn’t make sense unless he’s looking for an easy fight so that he doesn’t get beaten. Interestingly enough, Vera has lost his last three fights in losses to Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. [twice] and Willie Monroe Jr. It would be a lot more interesting to see Fielding matched against someone who is at least winning their fights instead of losing. If he wants to pick a guy who is losing, then why not Monroe Jr? I think Fielding would get clowned by Monroe if that fight came off.
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