In the press conference for the upcoming Golovkin vs Murray fight, the dominant 160lb champion had a lot of good words to say about his latest choice of opponent. Martin Murray from the UK has 29 wins in 31 fights with 1 loss and a draw. After winning the British, Commonwealth and WBA Inter-Continental straps Murray faced WBA Super champion Felix Sturm.
That fight finished with a very controversial split decision draw as the final result and Murray was denied his world title. After two back to back wins which saw Murray gain the interim WBA title he then went into a fight with Sergio Martinez, who despite being dropped in the fight and looking as though he lost the majority of the exchanges, came away with the unanimous decision. This was the second title fight for Murray and the second time a home-cooked decision had cost him the title.
Murray is coming off of four consecutive wins since the awful decision to Martinez and has looked good in becoming the WBC Silver Champion in the middleweight division. This however, will be his toughest challenge yet. Interestingly, Golovkin also described Murray as his toughest fight to date, meaning both fighters are in the same boat.
Whilst Murray is coming into this fight with a ton of ups and downs throughout his career. Golovkin is in an opposite situation in having destroyed each of his 31 opponents. 28 knockouts in 31 fights is impressive for any middleweight, but even more so in seeing that around one third of those bouts were for a world title.
Golovkin is now the WBA super and interim WBC middleweight champion and he also holds in the IBO version of this title on top. Golovkin is now being featured on many pound for pound lists after thrashing former world champion Geale inside two rounds. All Golovkin needs is some of the big names such as Alvarez, Cotto and Froch to face him in order for his stock to rise to the point where he is a superstar and capable of holding up consecutive pay-per-views.
Despite the fact that he holds the interim WBC title, it is unlikely that Miguel Cotto will face him, so the question is who will finally bite the bullet and take the test against the best? At this point it looks like the elite few huge names which are necessary are going to continue to avoid him, GGG is no spring chicken at 32, and it would seem that many are waiting for him to begin to fade before going in for the kill, and whilst this is bad for the sport and the fans, can you hardly blame them?
Fighting this man is a lose-lose situation. If you lose, it will likely be in brutal fashion which will damage your reputation, and if you win, fickle boxing fans will then go on to say you beat an over-hyped puncher who had never beaten an elite fighter in his career.
