John Murray Wants a "Shootout" With Michael Katsidis

By Terence Dooley

John Murray went into Saturday night’s fight with Jon Thaxton with two things on his mind.  The first thing was Thaxton, obviously, and the second was keeping alive the dream of one day facing Michael ‘The Great’ Katsidis, who is the current WBO Interim title holder at lightweight.

Speaking prior to the contest, Murray told boxingnewsonline.net that he would relish a showdown with Katsidis.  “I watched [Michael] Katsidis the other night and he’s the type of guy I’d like to fight, just to have a shootout,” declared Murray.

“Everyone knows how I fight; everyone knows how he fights – so we’d just get on with it. I didn’t see anything that I couldn’t deal with and I think there are flaws in his make-up that I can exploit.”

Murray hammered Thaxton to defeat in four rounds and then reiterated his desire to take on Katsidis.  Michael, polite to a fault, has subsequently released an open letter in which he welcomed Murray’s challenge and, tantalizingly, stated that he would like to fight in England again at some point – Michael came over here and defeated Graham Earl for the WBO Interim title back in 2007.

In the meantime, though, Katsidis is looking towards a showdown with Juan Manuel Marquez, the man who he must fight in order to validate that WBO Interim title claim.  However, Marquez is looking towards a marquee fight with Ricky Hatton or, failing that, a shot at a light-welterweight crown.  So, could Murray find himself in a position to fight Michael down the line?  Not according to the WBO rankings for September, which do not include Murray. 

Strangely, the highest-ranked British boxer in the latest WBO rankings is Edinburgh’s Alex Arthur, who is rated #6; presumably on the back of his one-round destruction of French journeyman Mohamed Benbiou back in June.  Benbiou has not fought since and his record stands at 15-15, 8 KO’s – this epic win is Arthur’s only fight at lightweight.  Alex weighed a trim-and-ready 135lb for that one but has subsequently announced that he will campaign at light-welterweight.

Consequently, there is now a vacancy in next month’s WBO top ten.  In an ideal world, Murray would slot into a top ten position.  Arthur was, presumably, ranked highly on the basis of his time as a WBO title holder at super-featherweight, despite never winning the title in the ring and losing it to Nicky Cook (who was a long-time super-featherweight) in his first defence. 

Marco Antonio Barrera sits just below Arthur at #7 ranked, again presumably, on the basis of his reputation as his lightweight form has been poor and his opponents at the higher weight have been less than stellar.

Murray is a natural lightweight, a man who holds the British belt and has posted solid wins over championship fighters – Thaxton was the European boss before losing to Anthony Mezaache in February of this year.  So why not give Murray a ranking?  Surely the WBO wants young, hungry fighters in its top ten, rather than bloated shells of Mexican greats or in the case of Juan Guzman, currently number #9 in the rankings, a fighter who has not fought at all in 2009 and who, like Arthur, has only fought once at 135lb.

As it stands the WBO lightweight top ten makes strange reading, as does their light-welterweight top ten; Gavin Rees has explicitly stated that he wishes to campaign at lightweight in the future yet he occupies the #10 slot in their 140lb rankings. 

Here is a thought: why not rank Rees at lightweight, where he could, ideally, fight Murray for the British belt and, therefore, give Murray a run at beating a WBO-ranked boxer, albeit one ranked at light-welter, and a decent chance of gate crashing the WBO lightweight top ten.  It makes sense, more sense, in fact, than Arthur’s unfeasibly high ranking, especially given that Arthur is no longer at lightweight and was, in essence, never a lightweight contender to begin with.

Katsidis-Murray would be a dream fight for boxing fans, a war between two aggressive boxers who love to fight.  Sure, Michael has bigger fish to fry right now but why not give fans a glimmer of hope and introduce John Murray, and commonsense, to the WBO lightweight rankings?

Alternatively, Murray could beat on the shell of Barrera, thus taking Marco’s ranking and progressing into the WBO top ten, but guess what?  A Murray-Barrera contest would be met with howls of derision.

A fight with Bredis Prescott, defeated by Miguel Vazquez in July, would be much more acceptable but would, on paper, mean less than battering Barrera, as Prescott is ranked #11 at lightweight by the WBO.  As an aside, Vazquez, who defeated Prescott, is nowhere to be found in the latest WBO rankings. 

Anyway, Prescott’s loss to Vazquez has earned him a pop at the WBO inter-continental title; he takes on the undefeated Russian Ruslan Provodnikov in November - current logic dictates that the winner of that one will be given a WBO world title shot.

Either way, Murray needs to be matched prudently in his next few fights, he has cleared the British scene without any real problems but now faces the biggest challenge in boxing, getting a ranking that justifies his in-ring form, rather than a ranking that is based on what you once did, what you once held or who you once defeated.  Good luck with that one, John.

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