Murray's Corner

[diddy]

Seriously a couple of a$$holes. Taking years off the life of their fighter. For what?

Terrible.

[DieHard24]

If i'm a top 15 guy..i try to fight Murray next and hope he's a shell of his former self.

[expe]

Oliver and Johnney are smart lads, they know Martin better than anyone, maybe they could have pulled him after the end of the tenth, but if they thought he could go on, I'm happy to go with them on that.

[diddy]

Come on. You serious? GGG has an IRON beard. Fight was well over for several rounds. No need to see 11 rounds of that.

[jezzamundo]

I agree that Murray's only chance for a win at that stage was to knock GGG out, which was unlikely given Murray's lack of power and GGG's great chin - but I don't think his corner is deserving of criticism for not pulling him out. He took a beating in the 8th (I would have scored it 10-8) but did better in the 9th and landed plenty in the 10th without taking much in return until the final seconds, I had Murray winning the 10th round right up until the knockdown.

The stoppage looked a little premature, but I don't have a problem with it - it was merciful saved Murray from taking a sustained beating because I don't think he had much left at that point.

[crusader]

Eh...I just watched the tenth and we obviously see that round very differently. He looked notably weary to me before the KD and had been taking a large amount of punishment for several rounds. He was clearly way behind and had virtually no hope of turning it around, so I would've liked to seen it stopped after he was dropped the third time, though I can easily see why he was allowed to continue.

[jezzamundo]

Don't get me wrong, the 10th round was a 10-8 for GGG due to the knockdown. Up until Murray was forced onto the ropes, I think he was clearly winning the round and I was more impressed with the work Murray did in the middle of the ring that the work GGG did on the ropes. I probably shouldn't have said clearly winning the round until the KD, but it was definitely a close, competitive round until the final seconds.

[crusader]

We'll have to disagree because I thought it was clearly a GGG round prior to the KD. Murray started brightly, but he did very little in the middle of the ring over the last two minutes and was largely getting pounded against the ropes, with his only bright spot in my view being a combo at 1:23 or so that clearly had little effect on GGG.

[jezzamundo]

Fair enough - everyone scores a little differently. I also had the 2nd round even with a small edge to Murray and another one of the middle rounds I thought was close, I forget which. Murray had a lot of success landing clean punches in the centre of the ring which makes me wonder who, from 154-168lb has the ability to stay off the ropes against GGG?

[crusader]

At MW N'dam is probably the best mover but I can't see his chin holding up for long, at 168 Dirrell has good movement and he used it to make Froch look very amateurish at times, and I think Ward would be able to keep things in the middle of the ring fairly well, not through rapid movement like the others but through his physical strength and skilled work in close. I can also see GGG having problems pushing back Froch, who is obviously very physical and strong with a good jab that could impede GGG's advance.

[MachoTime]

I thought the fight was over after 8.

[crusader]

Murray showed impressive resilience to keep going after the fourth and the eighth.

[jezzamundo]

I thought the fight was over after 8.

I thought he was more hurt by the body shots in the fourth than by anything that came later - wasn't sure he was going to get up after the 2nd KD. After the 8th I was expecting GGG to end it in the 9th, but Murray showed a strong heart and did well to survive as long as he did.

[MachoTime]

I thought the fight was over after 8.

I thought he was more hurt by the body shots in the fourth than by anything that came later - wasn't sure he was going to get up after the 2nd KD. After the 8th I was expecting GGG to end it in the 9th, but Murray showed a strong heart and did well to survive as long as he did.

Murray was in good shape to take punishment,

[Blodhemn]

Should've been stopped after the 8th really. GGG was toying with and destroying Murray. It was like a sparring session for one guy and a train wreck for the other.

[crow]

I'm amazed the bout went 6 more rds after these 2 bodyshots kd in the fourth.
Murray did well to control distance and used his reach and chin to give GGG problems.

Amazing too how GGG looked relatively unscathed after getting tagged so many times.

[jezzamundo]

I'm amazed the bout went 6 more rds after these 2 bodyshots kd in the fourth.
Murray did well to control distance and used his reach and chin to give GGG problems.

Amazing too how GGG looked relatively unscathed after getting tagged so many times.

I noticed that too. Murray has heart, defense and durability to spare, but he hits like Dora the Explorer.

[Tanzio]

Murray made it clear that he intended to go all in. His corner respected his wishes. The ref did a great job. Murray took significant damage but he knew that would be the case going in. Murray was fighting hard in the 10th, landing several significant shots. He deserved to have his chance to shock the world. If it had been stopped earlier it would have been whined about and Murray would have been p!ssed.

Murray, his corner, and the ref all did their jobs admirably.

[diddy]

160 is a complete waste of time for GGG. There isn't one person in the division with even a remote chance of beating him.

[ReggieDiggs]

Murray made it clear that he intended to go all in. His corner respected his wishes. The ref did a great job. Murray took significant damage but he knew that would be the case going in. Murray was fighting hard in the 10th, landing several significant shots. He deserved to have his chance to shock the world. If it had been stopped earlier it would have been whined about and Murray would have been p!ssed.

Pretty much agree with this take.

I don't think Martin was ever in THAT serious of danger in this fight that his corner should have made the decision for him. I have seen that far too often when a guy is just getting beaten from pillar to post & doesn't know what country he's in, but I don't believe this was one of those times. If Martin wanted to quit fair play, but he seemed like a cat who thought he was capable of something that, unfortunately for him, ended up being false. Thing is sometimes those guys are right & if a guy is still making an effort & gots his wits about him I say game on. Everybody in the ring knows or should know the deadly things that could happen even on a good day where no one drops the ball so if a cat is willing to continue taking the risk of fighting & is of sound mind let the man fight.

I think the biggest problem isn't a corner not calling it, its the fighter not calling it. A fighter knows even better than the corner when he's had enough. I think a great example of a fighter calling it was Steve Vukosa on FNF just this week. That was a fight I felt like he'd taken enough damage & didn't have his heart into the fight that the corner SHOULD have called it on his behalf if they were out for his best interest, but Steve ended up making that decision for himself before another round finished cuz like I said he even knew this was a losing battle. I tend to think if there wasn't such a negative stigma associated with quitting when a fighter realized he was overmatched more guys would do it in their prime instead of mostly only towards the end of there careers or if they are no-hoper kinda guys who mostly just lose to prospects or promising fighters.

[Horse]

Seriously a couple of a$$holes. Taking years off the life of their fighter. For what?

Terrible.

Nonsense.

[ikorolev]

Both Murray and his corner seemed to be relieved after the very timely stoppage by the ref.

[palooka]

Seriously a couple of a$$holes. Taking years off the life of their fighter. For what?

Terrible.

Nonsense.

Murray has gone up in the estimation of many; he took his lumps and tried his best - he'd have been pilloried if he'd have pulled out after the 8th coz he wasn't winning.

[rd350lc]

Tiny, tiny ring too that favours Golovkin's front foot style , no escaping the onslaught !

[sucracristo]

murray got some help from the ref in the 4th. had 2 kd's and about 30 2nds left and the ref
jumped in and stopped GGG from mauling murray for no reason at all, sent them back to their
corners, and then let them go back to fighing with like 10 2nds left. it looked like they just
didn't want the fight to end early. GGG also looked like as long as he was dominating the rounds
he wasn't going all out for the ko.