By Scott Gilfoid: #1 WBA middleweight contender Martin Murray (25-0-1, 11 KO’s) believes that the 37-year-old WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (50-2-2, 28 KO’s) is ready to be beaten when they fight on April 27th at the Club Atletico Velez Sarsfield, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Murray, 30 hasn’t tasted defeat as of yet, and he’s got the confidence of someone that hasn’t realized their limits.
Murray said “With me being so much of an underdog it’ll be a shock to a lot of people if I win, but it won’t be a shock to me. This is a fight I feel I can win and we’ll be working on a plan in the next few weeks to work out how to beat Martinez.”
I honestly don’t see anything in Murray that leads me to believe him capable of beating Martinez. I saw Murray’s fight against former WBA Super World middleweight champion Felix Sturm in December, 2011, and I felt that Murray was extremely lucky to get a 12 round draw in that fight because I had Sturm the winner of that fight by four rounds, and I’m no fan of Sturm. He landed the cleaner shots in every round, and he had Murray out on his feet in the 12th after the two fighters stood toe-to-toe.
Murray has decent power, and nice boxing skills. I don’t think this is going to be an easy fight for Martinez at all. It’s going to be a tough fight for him, but in the end he’s going to be the one with his hand raised because of his power and speed advantage.
The only way Murray beats Martinez is if he gets in the trenches with him enough to win the rounds. Murray isn’t going to get a decision if he fights the way fellow Brit Darren Barker did when he fought Martinez in October 2011.
Barker played it safe and just stood on the outside jabbing all night long, and that cost him the fight. Murray will have to do a lot better if he wants the win because the fight is taking place in Argentina, Martinez’s home city, not the UK where Murray might get lucky.
Martinez looked great in his last fight in beating former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. last September in a one-sided 12 round decision. Martinez was hurt in the 12th, however, when he made the mistake of standing in front of the desperate 190 pound Chavez Jr. and he dropped. Murray doesn’t have the same kind of power or size as Chavez Jr. does, so Martinez should be more than okay against him.
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