By Terence Dooley
Joe Murray was disappointed after returning home from the 2008 Olympics without a single win under his belt, the Mancunian lost out to China’s Gu Yu by 7-17 in their first-round encounter but has since jogged to 7-0 (3 early) as a pro. Murray’s last contest saw him notch up a points win over Yuriy Voronin back in March, the featherweight prospect is back in the gym, waiting on his next engagement.
“Looking forward to it,” said Murray when looking ahead to his next date. “I hope something big comes up and just want to get on with my career. I think I am the ‘forgotten Olympian’ as I’ve not boxed in a while. But my last one was a good test and a good win over Voronin. I can’t wait to get back out there.”
Murray’s win over Voronin came hot on the heels of Hatton Promotion’s stablemate Scott Quigg’s sixth-round TKO win over the tough Ukrainian, Quigg is fighting for the WBA International super-bantamweight title on the 25th of September; Murray believes that his performance against Voronin has given a clear indication of how far he can go as a pro.
“I took a lot of experience from it. If you look at some other prospects you’ll see their head pop if things don’t go their way but we stayed calm when it didn’t go all my way. Voronin is strong, all the Eastern Europeans are, so I had to use plan 2 and 3 when he got close. I kept it at range when I needed to and got eight good rounds,” revealed the 23-year-old.
“Voronin has boxed for the European title three times and he had six weeks notice for me, most people get him on a week notice. He’d seen films of me, it is not hard to get footage of my amateur career, and I think he boxed to the best he could do on the night but I still got a comfortable victory.
“A lot of people think if they can get a win over me then they can jump over me and into the mix. People get notice and I’m seen as a bit of a name so they do bring their best when we fight. I think that the more they come and fight the more I can get my shots off and score the stoppages.”
Murray has scored stoppage wins over Delroy Spencer, Barrington Brown and George Mchedlishvili, though noted for his boxing the flame-haired fighter believes that punching power will come to the fore during his rise through the ranks. “I don’t get paid by the round so if I can take them out early I will do,” he pledged.
“I want to show the world that I’m more than just a boxer, I can punch as well. The more I get off with clean shots, the more I will hurt people. Like my stoppage of the Georgian [Mchedlishvili], who was undefeated [5-0-1] going in – I stopped him with a great body shot. I was five undefeated, he was six undefeated and he’s recently beaten the kid Stephen Foster fought in his comeback fight [Kakhaber Avetisian], who gave Foster a tough fight. I’ve read that Mchedlishvili has gone back to Georgia and won the national featherweight title. It was a proper stoppage, the ref didn’t jump in – the kid was on his knees. That was a good learning fight and a good performance.”
Murray’s ‘forgotten Olympian’ tag has fired the fighter up; he wants to grab the punctuation wins needed to force his way onto the Sky roster. “I want a bit more Sky coverage”, mused Murray, “as I’ve only had two rounds on Sky TV.
“I’d like to get my name out there now. I don’t know why Sky haven’t shown me. I don’t know what I’ve done not to be shown but I’ll keep trying my best and they’ll have to showcase me if I start to make my way to the top.
“I have had seven fights as a pro, my last one was a hard one against a guy who has boxed for the EBU title three times. I want Sky to show people who I am. I didn’t win anything at the Olympics but I won a World Amateur Boxing Championships bronze medal. People like Carl Froch and David Haye fought at that level and they went onto become world champions. Winning a World medal is better than winning an Olympic one in many ways because of who you fight on the way to it.
“If it hadn’t have been an Olympic year I might have got shown more on TV off the back of that bronze. Because I didn’t do that well at the Olympics they’ve been showing more of the other lads, which is understandable – I’m sure it will turn around in my favour.
“Me and my brother [European lightweight champion John Murray] seem to always fly under the radar but if you put us on the same show you’ll see the Manchester crowd get behind us, just like they did with Ricky Hatton. John is the European champion and I’m an Olympian so if we could get on the same show together then we’d sell it out.”
Still, Murray’s decision to join with Ricky Hatton’s promotional company was a deliberate bid to distance himself from his older brother, John is promoted by Mick Hennessy – though proud of John’s achievements, Joe is keen to establish his own fistic identity.
“We went with different promoters because I wanted to make my own name. I didn’t want to be in the shadow of my brother. It happened to Matthew Hatton in the past but he’s now coming out on his own shows and it has done great for him. I want to make my own career and for people to judge me for me, not compare me to John all the time,” he insisted.
“John is more on the front foot and I’m a bit more of a boxer, we’re a different kettle of fish. John is a tough man who will keep coming forward and I sometimes like to stay on the backfoot and box my way in.”
Trainer Joe Gallagher has charged his two most experienced charges, Anthony Crolla and Murray, with the task of giving the young professional perspective. Murray trained in pro gyms when coming through the amateur ranks and credits Gallagher’s other fighters for helping him make the adjustments needed for paid success.
“We’ve got no egos in this gym. John is a European title-holder and a top ten fighter but he’s just one of us. I worked with the other guys [James DeGale, Frankie Gavin, Tony Jeffries, Billy Joe Saunders and David Price] in the amateurs but have followed John all my life so I look up to him because he’s close to home; he’s my biggest inspiration. My brother has done it the hard way so I don’t mind following his footsteps and doing it the hard way – I’m not mithered about how the other Olympic boxers or prospects are doing things,” stressed Murray.
“I’ve got a great team behind me. They won’t take any risks with me before a fight and we can’t hide behind our egos in this gym. If I’m not right in the gym then I won’t fight. The training sessions in this gym show you where you’re at. I’m training with Anthony Crolla, John, Matthew Macklin and the Burtons [Hosea and Zak] so there is good teamwork between us. It is not about where you come on your runs, it is about how hard we all push each other – there is no room to hide in our training.
“As a trainer, Joe’s got one of the longest unbeaten records in Britain so things are working brilliantly. I spar Crolla, I spar my brother and can work with Danny Randell, and we’ve got a lot of people around to help me in the gym. I’ve known these people since I was 13 and they’ve been brought up in boxing, just like me. I’ve seen someone like Anthony come all the way through and he’s now close to a British title. We’ve got a good partnership, we can spar and go about our business but are still good mates.”
Indeed, Murray also revealed that his relationship with Gallagher is strong enough to overcome the odd run-in, maintaining that a warts-and-all friendship is the cornerstone of their success.
He said: “Other fighters with big profiles might go to gyms and the coach might not want to tell them what they need to hear. The guys are the coaches ‘prizefighters’ in the proper sense and that can make it tough for someone to tell them hard truths. Me and Joe have been together for thirteen years so Joe can tell me what he thinks and I won’t go off anywhere in a huff. Joe is a father figure to me, he tells me what he thinks and I don’t spit my dummy out when he does.
“Joe can put anything to me. We can have an argument then have a few hours to calm down before getting onto a new day and a new start. Coaches shouldn’t be intimidated about saying stuff to fighters or go around worrying about stepping on anyone’s toes.
“I can have days when I’m off in the gym and Joe will tell me straight to sort it out, that is the great thing about our gym. There is no ego. If you’re not working on the bags, Joe will tell you that you are not here to mess about and show you the door if you don’t like his way of doing things.”
With his career well underway, Joe could have been forgiven for calling for fights against the men nearest to him in the rankings yet he opts, instead, to let his trainer do the reconnaissance work on his behalf, with Murray himself keen to point out that his job is to drop opponents, not drop names.
“I wouldn’t put my name in with anyone up there at the moment because I’m only a seven fight pro. When any title or big chance comes I’ll be prepared for it and will give it the best that I’ve got,” he promised.
“I leave that (thinking about his rivals) to Joe. I don’t need to worry about anything. Joe tells me all about who I’m fighting and how the other guys are doing. I don’t go to bed worrying about how well my rivals are doing, I leave that to Joe as well! It has always been this way. Joe does the homework and lets me know about the guys I’m fighting. I can watch fights without pressure because Joe takes it all off me.”
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