Martin Murray faces Mirzet Bajrektarevic this Saturday, July 18th in Manchester

By Boxing News - 07/13/2015 - Comments

murray5By Scott Gilfoid: #11 WBC super middleweight contender Martin Murray (30-2-1, 13 KOs) will be fighting under the watchful guidance of Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn this Saturday night on July 18th in a scheduled 8 round bout against little known 35-year-old Croation fighter Mirzet Bajrektarevic (14-3, 8 KOs) on the undercard of the Scott Quigg vs. Kiko Martinez fight at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK.

Bajrektarevic is a light heavyweight southpaw who has previously beaten soundly beaten by the likes of Gabriel Campillo, Enrico Koelling and Stefano Abatangelo. Bajrektarevic has won his last three fights against atrocious opposition with records like 6-21, 9-40 and 9-9. We’re talking about a fighter who hasn’t exactly been facing the cream of the crop in the 175lb division lately.

For Murray, this is the second consecutive soft touch for him since his one-sided 11th round knockout loss to WBA middleweight champion in February of this year in Monte Carlo, Monaco. Last month on June 26th, Murray destroyed a fighter named George Beroshvili in 2 rounds. Like Murray’s fight against Bajrektarevic, it was a total mismatch on paper, and made little sense given that Murray is an eight-year pro and is up there in age at 32.

Normally when you get a fighter that is as old and experienced as Murray, you don’t need to take him back to square one to teach him his A-B-Cs again after a loss, but that’s what Hearn is doing with him. I can’t say I agree with it. I think it is bad match-making, a waste of Murray’s time, and really waste of the ticket buyer’s money to see a mismatch like the Murray-Bajrektarevic.

Granted, Murray was schooled badly by Golovkin last February in getting carried to the 11th round before getting obliterated, but that doesn’t mean that Hearn needs to restart Murray’s career over from scratch. When a fighter like Murray meets up with the best and gets trounced, you don’t need to start him from the very elementary beginnings.

Hearn just needs to put Murray in with contenders that he thinks he’s capable of beating. That means putting him in with actual living and breathing contenders, not 3rd tier guys like the ones that Hearn is matching Murray against now in Bajrektarevic and Beroshvili. I don’t for a minute understand Hearn’s match-making. He’s been doing the same thing with IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook in putting him in with soft guys, and you have to wonder why.

Murray is pretty excited now that he’s with Hearn because he believes his career is going to get a lot more attention and supposedly get built the right way. Well, if this is the kind of attention that Murray is going to be getting, then I don’t think it’s worth it. This is just a showcase fight for Murray against some overmatched opponent in 35-year-old Bajrektarevic. I don’t think this is the way you build up a fighter as old as Murray.

If you’ve got an old car with a lot of miles on it like Murray, you don’t take it easy on it. You ride it until the tires fall off. So what Hearn should be doing it matching Murray against the likes of Sakio Bika, Rogelio Medina, Julius Jackson or Vincent Feigenbutz. If Murray can’t handle those guys, then Hearn at least will know that he’s wasting his time with him and can look to cash out with a fight against the best possible opponent, whoever that might be. But it’s a heck of a lot better for Hearn to find out sooner about whether Murray can cut the mustard at 168 rather than later after he’s invested a lot of time and good clean cash in him.



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