Martin Murray: I've Got The Tools To Beat Anyone at 160

By Thomas Gerbasi

If not for some bad luck and wrong turns, Martin Murray could very well be a world champion today. Of course, lines like that are usually followed by tales of the fighter in question staring at the top from the bottom of the division, hoping and praying for the break that will give him another shot at redemption.

Not so in this case. In fact, Murray’s third crack at a world title could be one win over Domenico Spada on Saturday away. No one knows this better than the 32-year-old Brit, a veteran fighter aware that the big fight is always the one in front of you.

“If you fall in any fight leading up to a potential big fight, then it just doesn’t happen,” he said. “So this is a big fight and I’ve approached it in that way, I trained well, I’ve had a good camp, and I’m ready.”

The current WBC Silver middleweight titlist, Murray left his home in St Helens twice over the last few years to challenge Felix Sturm and Sergio Martinez in their backyards of Germany and Argentina, respectively. In both fights, Murray proved that he was a world-class contender, battling to a controversial draw with Sturm in 2011 and dropping and nearly upsetting Martinez in 2013 before a late rally saved the title of “Maravilla.”

Those performances left Murray in a quandary. Did he have to change what he was doing to please the judges and leave no questions on the scorecards? Was his style good enough to one day wear the crown? Or did he have to simply avoid traveling to his opponent’s hometown?

“Maybe in both those fights if I would have pushed it a little bit, I could have just got the win,” he said. “At the same time, doing what I do got me to where I am, I’m building some good momentum around me, and I’m steadily creeping right back up there among the best middleweights in the world and I’m ready to prove it.”

3-0 since the Martinez bout, Murray’s ultimate test will be the fighter most observers consider the best at 160 pounds – Gennady Golovkin. The WBA “Super World” and interim WBC champion, “GGG” is coming off another destructive victory, this one over Marco Antonio Rubio last Saturday in Carson, California, and while the boxing public and media want to see him in with the big names like Miguel Cotto, Canelo Alvarez, Andre Ward, or Julio Cesar Chavez, those fights aren’t likely to happen in the next few months, and with the Kazakhstan native wanting to stay busy, Murray may be the guy who gets the call. Of course, a loss to Italy’s Spada would take him out of the running, and even a lackluster win wouldn’t help his cause, so he is in a position where he has to think about winning and winning impressively.

“I kind of look at it from both angles,” he said. “This is pretty much like a semifinal for me, so first and foremost, I’ve got to win; it’s as simple as that. I’m just focused on winning, whether that’s points, knockout, stoppage, whatever. As long as I get the win, then I can move into them other fights. But I do also think about putting on a good show. It’s going to be tricky against someone like Spada, who’s not one of the fighters who it’s easy to look good against. So I am going in there to impress, but at the same time, if things aren’t working, it’s just about getting the job done.”

If he completes his mission, the reward may be seen as a curse to some, but to real fighters like Murray, a shot at one of the hottest fighters in the sport right now – and with a title on the line no less – is something he craves. As for his thoughts about a possible fight with Golovkin, he’s respectful of the champion, but he doesn’t see him as unbeatable.

“I think he’s a top fighter,” Murray said of Golovkin. “He’s crushed everybody who he’s been in with, but I think I’ve got the tools to beat any middleweight out there, and hopefully everything goes well on Saturday and then it’s looking very much like that fight. And I wouldn’t be taking the fight if I didn’t think I could win it. I think a lot of his opponents have gone into the fight already beat, whereas you won’t get that with me. I’m gonna go in there and stand up to him and I’m gonna give him all he could handle.”

That’s the statement of a man who has been in tougher fights in life, and after a rocky past that included trouble with the law as a young man, just making it here is a win in itself, and he knows it.

“Even if I stopped a couple years ago, it would have been (a success story),” Murray said. “When I turned pro, it was always just about trying my best, reaching my potential, and wherever I got to, I got to knowing that at the end I’ve got to be happy with myself. I’ve worked hard ever since, and these opportunities keep coming up in front of me, and I want to keep doing it. I want to keep going upward, trying my best, fighting the best, and when I retire I can be comfortable with myself knowing that I gave it my all.”

That’s not a eulogy for a career though, that’s Martin Murray gearing up to write another chapter to a remarkable story.

“It’s been like starting from scratch again, but everything happens for a reason, and I found myself being in a great position with the team I’ve got around me and I’m very thankful for that, so I’m just working hard now and I know that with all the hard work I’ve put in the past, I’ll be on everyone’s radar rather than being just underneath it. It’s been a hard road, but I believe eventually I will be world champion.”