By Terence Dooley

Joe Gallagher spoke exclusively to BoxingScene.com to confirm that, as of yet, the mooted match between his charge John Murray and Amir Khan has not been finalized.  Amir is looking for an opponent for his April 16th homecoming bout, Murray is in the frame, as is Northern Ireland’s Paul McCloskey – Team Khan have yet to ink a deal with either boxer. 

Gallagher, however, told me that his man is ready and waiting should a fight with Khan come off, the trainer was also keen to indicate that there is a huge amount of mutual respect between Murray’s team and Amir’s people.  Indeed, Gallagher was at pains to point out that the bitter online rivalry between the two sets of opposing fans is not a reflection of how the two fighters view one another.

“I think that John Murray and Amir Khan can both handle themselves in the ring and if they do fight they'll take care of business,” stressed Gallagher.  “What I don't want is for both camps of supporters to talk the other one down or throw personal abuse because there is no room for that in sport.  Amir Khan had the banter with John's fans (at Murray’s last fight), the fans chanted at Khan and it was portrayed negatively but there is a lot of professional respect between John and Amir.”

Khan’s car was keyed during his visit to Murray’s last fight, a stoppage win over Andriy Kudriavtsev; John’s fans were blamed for the act of vandalism.  Gallagher believes that a fight between the two – described locally as the “biggest” fight in Manchester’s boxing history, a tag which fails to reflect the fact that Khan is from Bolton and that Ricky Hatton versus Kostya Tszyu was far bigger – would be fought in the best possible spirit.

In the meantime, Gallagher is content to eat what is on his plate; Anthony Crolla and Matthew Macklin both have big fights on the horizon, against Carl Johanneson and Winky Wright respectively.  Joe is particularly pleased with recent development of ‘Million Dollar’ Crolla, who boxed his way to a seventh-round win over Andy Morris in October of last year. 

“That meant so much to me because it meant so much to Crolla.  We were right up against it but Crolla didn't panic, he had composure and many fighters, and trainers, would think that the plan wasn't working and abandon it,” recalled Gallagher, who feels that Crolla’s boxing brain was not acknowledged on the night.

“The Sky commentary team couldn't see what Anthony was doing at first, he kept calm in the storm and chipped away with his shots, it was very Juan Manual Marquez like. We were watching [Julio Cesar] Chavez against [Rocky] Lockridge and how he weathered the storm in that fight.  Crolla was fighting ten rounds, not twelve, and we had to reflect that in the performance but Anthony showed the same kind of patience.

“I put pressure onto him by calling for the knockout in the build-up because I believed that if we timed it right then he could knock Andy out.  Crolla's best two performances have resulted in knock-outs [Writer’s note: Crolla stopped former world title challenger Michael Brodie in November 2009], and people say he isn't a puncher.

“We had a Plan B but felt that the original plan was working.  When Andy started trading in round three, we knew we had him.  Crolla kept the left hand going, upstairs and downstairs, and brought the right hand in as the fight progressed.  Crolla is still maturing as a fighter, John matured when he became a champion and Crolla will do the same, winning this title has improved him.”

Still, the performance was criticised in some quarters; the 24-year-old English champion started slowly, or patiently depending on your perspective, and looked slow of foot compared to Morris’s silky movement.  Critics maintain that Gallagher has tried to imprint John Murray’s pressure style onto Crolla, 19-2 (7 early).

“Yeah,” answered Gallagher when asked if he is aware of this criticism, “it reminds me of Billy Graham with Ricky Hatton because Ricky had a signature style.  When Anthony Crolla fought Michael Brodie no one said he boxed like John Murray, he turned southpaw and boxed to orders.  In the Sid Razak fight, Anthony had a high tempo and showed a lot of variety.

“Crolla is a more rounded fighter now and whatever style John represents isn't the one that is put onto Crolla.  It all comes down to the particular fight.  If Anthony had boxed on the back-foot then who was going to force the fight?  Andy was boxing on the move so Crolla had to do what Gary Sykes did and walk Andy down.  Ricky Hatton put the pressure on Mayweather and it didn't work on the night but you always need someone to be the boxer in this type of fight.  We got the right pattern for the right fight.

“Anthony got a good win and the knockout.  Fellow professionals like Jamie Moore and Gary Sykes could see what Crolla was doing, they saw the bigger picture.  Jamie is good at reading a fight, someone at the back of the hall might think Andy was boxing Crolla's head off but Crolla was landing accurate shots, how else do you think Andy got a closed eye?

“Listen, it is a good mark for Crolla to have knocked Andy out when Gary [Sykes] couldn't but that doesn't make Crolla a guaranteed winner in the rematch.  Both men have improved.  Gary had a little blip in the Gary Buckland loss but he's got two twelve rounders under his belt since he beat Crolla [on points in May 2009].  The cat is out the bag with Crolla now; no one is going to take him lightly. 

“As for Buckland, when John beat him up at lightweight people wrote Buckland off, he comes back as a super-featherweight, gets rave reviews and people forget about the job John did on him and that Crolla’s earned the right to fight Sykes again ahead of anyone else.

“A rematch between Crolla and Sykes is the natural fight for the division, we would see the best of both fighters and it is one of those fights where you'd see them pushing each other up the levels.  We're taking the right fights, Carl Johanneson is next and it is a very tough fight but we are coming for the British super-featherweight title.”

Gallagher’s impassioned defence of Crolla had crossed over into a defence of Murray via Buckland.  When he is on a roll, and he often is, there is nothing quite like the sight and sound of the lesser-bearded Gallagher, his fanatical devotion to his fighters led one forum wag to compare Joe to the leader of a religious cult.  Certainly, he hopes to be “blowing up like David Koresh” during coming years and is impassioned when speaking about the future of his lads and the responsibility that the gym’s undefeated run, 41-0 and counting, brings.

“This run brings its own pressure.  Crolla was worried about the record going into the fight with Andy and Macklin was thinking about it in his last fight [a points win over Ruben Varon last December] but these lads just keep on producing and they're making the record go on for longer and longer,” marvelled Gallagher. 

“It is something that, as a team, we've all worked on together in the gym and we've carried it into the fights.  We call it the hot potato in the gym: it has passed from John, to Crolla, to Joe and to Macklin and is back on the move again.  It is a good way of building camaraderie and they are all bouncing off each other.

“We've a good mix of class fighters and are having our time in the sunshine.  Pressure is pressure, we always have some type of pressure, and the record of the gym is a positive pressure because the winning of the fights and the moving on is the main focus for any of the fighters.”

Success, however, brings its own problems.  When John was on his way up, Gallagher called for fights against the likes of Khan and then-British boss Jon Thaxton.  Now Murray is a wanted man, with some calling for John to defend his EBU title against former WBA light-welterweight title-holder Gavin Rees.  Gallagher, though, believes that Rees needs to take care of John Watson and force his way into the EBU mandatory position in order to make the fight viable as Murray is currently focussed on a clash with Khan or, failing this, a major lightweight title shot.

“Watson didn't warrant a shot at John at the time,” said Gallagher when asked why Murray did not accommodate the Liverpudlian during 2010.  “Gavin Rees is a former world champion, WBA, and you've got to respect that, but he's rebuilding at lightweight under Gary Lockett, who is doing a great job.  You have to remember that Gavin won his title from a good fighter, Souleymane M’Baye, and lost it to Andrey Kotelnik, another good fighter, but can’t just jump the queue at lightweight.  John Murray against Gavin Rees is a possibility that we'll deal with if the fight happens but Gavin has another fight on at the moment as he’s rematching Watson.”

He added: “We're in the John Murray business, Gavin takes care of his own business and it isn't a case of ducking anyone.  John's the European champion, everyone tells us that he needs to move onto world level and then in the next breath they tell us we're ducking a fight with Rees, who hasn't been to the top of the world as a lightweight.  Do we stick or move on; of course John will want to explore bigger titles now because he doesn't want to go back on himself.

“John is going to go out and get what is best for him in terms of fights and money.  As you have said before, John’s unbeaten record is a commodity and if people want it then they'll have to promote John and market it him right.”

Murray’s inactivity and relative low profile is an ongoing concern for Gallagher; he wants his fighter to get the right fight at the right time.  John, 30-0 (18), is currently a promotional free agent and, along with manager Mike Marsden, is exploring all of his options.  Gallagher is aware that Murray, 26-years-old and a pressure fighter, is entering a crucial period.

“John sees other fighters selling out big arenas and he wants that opportunity to fight for big titles in big fights,” he mused.  “Lots of people are interested in John and you've had Frank Warren praising him recently.  Frank doesn't stage shows, he stages events – he knows how to guide a fighter to titles.  It remains to be seen who John will go with but he wants the right fights for the right money.

“John's gone through the proper titles, he's defended the British and European, and what you get with John is exactly what it says on the tin, he's prepared to fight and will always bring excitement – I'm sure someone can use that type of fighter on their books.

“John said it himself, if he had been given the opportunity Kevin Mitchell was given to fight someone like [Michael] Katsidis in his own backyard then he'd have taken it and not let anybody down.  John Murray is ready to blast off, we just need the right people around him to bring him the success he deserves, both in and out the ring.

“John loves bouncing from one fight to another, like he did in the Thaxton fight, and that is what John needs.  Andriy Kudriavtsev was a good step and a good result, he lost to a good world champion in Paulus Moses – John stopped him in the same round Moses did but without getting the rave reviews.  John sees all this and it just fuels him, the fire burns brightly in John Murray, we want him to fight for a proper world title against a proper champion.  If we do our best and get beaten then we'll hold our hands up and say fair enough but John won't be denied. 

“People wrote John off after ten fights, he carried on, people wrote him off after twenty fights and he still proved them wrong, he's now going into his thirties in terms of fights, he has won all the titles asked of him and people still want to write him off, he'll prove them wrong again.  John just wants to go for it.  We're ready for world titles in the lightweight division or we'd move up if a fight with Amir came off, but we weren't going to move up for a non-title fight against the likes of Victor Ortiz.”

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