By Terence Dooley

British and European lightweight champion John Murray dusted himself off after wearing down Wales’ Gary Buckland for the vacant EBU strap and immediately set his sights on the winner of next weekend’s WBO interim title fight between Michael Katsidis and Kevin Mitchell, who are expected to light up Upton Park next Saturday night.  Murray feels that he has done things the hard way thus far in his career and that his mental and physical toughness will prove too much for anyone in the lightweight division.

“It’s been a difficult seven months,” admitted Murray to BoxingScene.com.  “I only had three weeks notice (for the Buckland fight) but I’ve shown I’m prepared to take chances in my career.  I’m over-the-moon, this title has been on my mind for seven months and I’m pleased to finally get it.  I’ve got the complete CV now, I just need to go out and add a world title to it.  I’d love to fight the winner of Katsidis-Mitchell.  If it is Katsidis, I’d go over to Australia to challenge him or fight him in America – we could have it in his own backyard if he wanted.”

Murray, though, is aware that both Mitchell and Katsidis would represent a huge step up in class; consequently he is convinced that the two fighters will give the fans what they want next Saturday night - though he warned that this could be to Kevin’s detriment.

“As long as a fight between me and Katsidis lasted, you would see two warriors going toe-to-toe and that is what will happen next week when he fights Mitchell.  Kevin can box and show his class but when it heats up he’ll stand with Katsidis and you’ll see two good fighters, proper men, having a toe-to-toe battle.

“I take my hat off to Kevin Mitchell, he’s a man cut from the same cloth as me and wants to fight the best to get his chance, and that is what he’s doing.  I wish him all the best and hope he does it because if he keeps winning and I keep winning you’ll have one of the most sellable fights in Britain.  We are both young fighters, both world class, and we could have another Benn-Eubank fight on our hands.”

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