by Keith Idec
Martin Murray isn’t the type of high-profile opponent Gennady Golovkin needs to beat to take his promising career to the elite level.
While well aware of that reality, Golovkin’s trainer still considers the once-beaten British contender the best opponent Golovkin has faced since the Kazakh knockout artist turned pro in May 2006. The 32-year-old Golovkin (31-0, 28 KOs) has been installed as a 35-1 favorite over Murray (29-1-1, 12 KOs), but Abel Sanchez anticipates a much stronger challenge than that when they meet Saturday in Monte Carlo (HBO; 5:45 p.m. ET).
“I think it all depends on how Murray comes out,” Sanchez said. “If Murray comes out to fight, it’s going to be a very interesting fight for as long as it goes. I think that Golovkin will be too strong and too big. He’s going to be too big and too strong for everybody at 154 and 160.
“Murray, if he puts the hand muffs on, he’ll get destroyed. He’s going to have to fight Golovkin, like [Matthew] Macklin tried, and hope to land his shots. But I think he’s the best fighter that we’ve fought yet. Maybe not the biggest puncher – [Curtis] Stevens was the biggest puncher. But he’s definitely got good credentials. He had that draw against Felix Sturm, but if you get a draw in Germany you know he won the fight. We’re looking for a real good challenge from him. It’s really up to Murray how long it’s going to last.”
The lone blemishes on the 32-year-old Murray’s record are the aforementioned split draw with Sturm (39-4-3, 18 KOs, 1 NC) three years ago in Mannheim, Germany, and a unanimous-decision defeat to then-WBC champion Sergio Martinez (51-3-2, 28 KOs) in April 2013 in Buenos Aires. Murray dropped Martinez in the eighth round of that closely contested, 12-round fight, which Sanchez believes Murray won.
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
