By Scott Gilfoid: Martin Murray (34-4-1, 16 KOs) and Gabriel Rosado (23-10, 13 KOs) both weighed in successfully on Friday in each of them coming in at 159 ¼ pounds in their fight for the vacant WBA Inter-Continental middleweight title this Saturday night on April 22 at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England. Rosado and Murray are going to be taking a trip to the last chance saloon on Saturday, as neither guy can afford to lose. Rosado lost his last fight to Willie Monroe last September in a fairly one-sided defeat.
Murray has lost 2 out of his last 4 fights since 2015 in boxing career. Yeah, Murray, 34, can partially blame his defeats on his confusing decision to move up in weight to the 168lb division in 2015, but he didn’t do much better when he was at 160. Before Murray moved up to 168, he was whipped by Gennady Golovkin by an 11th round knockout in February 2015. But when Murray made the strange decision to move up in weight to the super middleweight division, I knew it was going to end in disaster for him.
If Murray couldn’t punch his way through a wet paper sack at 160, then he sure wasn’t going to become a knockout artist in moving up to 168. Someone should have talked some sense to Murray before he made that choice, because he ended up throwing away almost 2 years of his career. The move would have made sense if Murray had made it earlier in his career when he was younger and had more time to make risky moves, but it definitely not a smart move for him to make in his early 30s.
I just hope that if Murray gets beaten up by Rosado on Saturday night that he doesn’t move up in weight once again. If Murray wants to take a risk with his career, then he should drain down to 154 and try and fight for a world title against the likes of Jermell Charlo or Erislandy Lara. He might get lucky and fight better. Of course, Murray would need to let his hands go if he wants to beat those guys. He’s not going to beat Charlo or Lara by hiding behind his clam-shell guard for 12 rounds like we saw him do in his losses to George Groves, Arthur Abraham and Golovkin.
Rosado, 31, feels pretty confident that he’s going to beat Murray. Rosado has seen Murray’s past losses, and he knows that he pretty much goes into hiding when his opponents let their hands go. Rosado says he wants to turn the fight into a war on Saturday night. He doesn’t care that he’s going to be fighting in front of Murray’s British fans at the Echo Arena. Rosado feels that the fans love him. I hope for Rosado’s sake, he’s not going to be going into the ring expecting the boxing fans to be giving him love, because I don’t think it’s going to happen. I expect Rosado to be booed like crazy, but it won’t matter because he’s not going to be listening to the crowd once the fight starts.
“I’m glad he’s talking like that, because when he gets down on Saturday night and realizes he’s in with a far better fighter, he’s done a few interviews where he’s said his predictions in which he sees the fight going 100 percent his way,” said Murray to IFL TV. “It’s not going to be like that. I believe I’m a better fighter. I’ll prove that on Saturday night. I understand the fight is going to swing from his side to my side. I believe it’ll be tough times. I believe I’m the better fighter. I’m a level above and I’m going to prove it. I was never a super middleweight. I knew when I went up there; I was kind of in the wrong weight. When opportunity knocks that’s where the fights were. So now I’m back where I belong. I believe I’m one of the best middleweights in the world. I still believe I’ve got a world title in me. If I can’t beat him, then it proves to myself that I don’t deserve a world title shot,” said Murray.
I hate to say it but Murray is going to find out the hard way on Saturday night that he’s not among the best middleweights in the division. I’m predicting that Rosado is going to bring Murray’s feet back down to earth and put his sense of his own talent back in alignment, because he seems to have a warped view of his ability. Murray, 34, isn’t a bad fighter. He’s got decent boxing skills, but he can’t punch and his work rate is just terrible. I see Murray as more of a bottom fringe contender when compared to the other fighters in the 160lb division. I don’t rate Murray highly, but I do think he’s a good bottom 15 type contender. He’s top definitely a top 15 guy.
“Tony Bellew got him this fight,” said Murray’s promoter Eddie Hearn to IFL TV about Rosado contacting Bellew to help him get a big fight in the UK. “He called me up and said Rosado wants to come to the UK. I think he’s looked at British boxing and said, ‘You know what. It’s buzzing over there. Let’s stick the shades on and go have a little tear up in a war and talk a little bit so that fans will like me and become a bit of a star.’ He’s probably right. If he beats Martin Murray, there are loads of fights out there for him. Martin is the favorite going into the fight. He’s in a must win situation. When I saw them in the head to head up there, I thought, ‘I love this. This is a great fight.’ You have two guys that want to return to those big fights, but they can only do it by winning on Saturday. I think Martin has learned a lot in his career, and for this camp, he’s using the knowledge for weight making. He’s in the position of being in a great place. He feels strong. At 168, he was a small middleweight. You saw that against [Arthur] Abraham. You saw that against George Groves. Maybe he feels like he’ll be a big 160. He made the decision to move, but prove will be in the putting on Saturday. It’s a tough fight to come back down to, but Rosado isn’t a huge middleweight, so we shall see. Murray-Rosado is a must win,” said Hearn.
I don’t know how Murray can be considered the favorite in this fight. I don’t see him as being talented enough to be rated as the favorite in the fight. Rosado is the far bigger puncher of the two with the greater experience and the better work rate. When push comes to shove, Rosado won’t spend the entire fight hiding behind his guard like we’ll likely be seeing from Murray on Saturday night. If Rosado is going to lose the fight, he’s going to at least five the boxing fans their money’s worth on Saturday night by going on the attack and losing on his shield.
“I’m ready. I went back to my roots,” said Rosado. “I know this fight is very important, so I wanted to make sure I did everything it takes to be victorious. I feel great. I’m really excited to be in the UK. I’ve been getting a lot of love from the fans. If it comes down to banging, I can bang all day. I’ve been in many wars, but I truly believe I’m the much better fighter skill-wise, speed. I feel like the fight is going to be a war, and I want it to be a war. I feel if I use my skills and my ring IQ, I can do pretty much whatever I want in the ring that day. When you prepare hard and have confidence, you can do whatever you want inside the ring. That’s how I feel going into this fight,” said Rosado.
So there it is. Rosado is ready for a war on Saturday night, and he’s hoping the fight winds up in a war. Rosado wants that type of fight. I don’t know if Murray has the same idea. All we can do is hope that he’ll be ready for a tear up in this fight, because it would be sad if Murray doesn’t put out maximum effort in this fight. Murray lost a lot of fights in his boxing career for choosing not to let his hands go the way he needed to for him to have a chance to win.
