Forgetting about John Murray?

[Autobarn]

i've trawled through about 10 threads about tony bellew's lacklustre win over ajisafe.

don't ppl have better things to look forward to, such as john murray's EBU title defense over a genuine european level challenger in andrei kudriavtsev? unless something weird happens, this is surely the fight of the weekend. it's the murray machine's first title fight on a saturday, i believe.

kudriavtsev lost to the previous EBU champ, mezaache, on a controversial, very narrow decision in mezaache's turf. he also beat mezaache in a previous fight. better than many of the recent european title challengers, i'd argue.

kudriavtsev is a tidy operator, and while underpowered, he has a quite aggressive style that could gel nicely with murray's. while the ukranian won't have the engine of a gary buckland, he is a more experienced operator.

murray is going places, having been offered a WBC lightweight elim AND a fight with victor ortiz on the khan undercard. for ppl who are taking murray-kudriavtsev for granted, remember how long it took murray to get the shot at the EBU title...

[Asterix]

I've never seen Andriy Kudryavtsev W 34 (KO 15) - L 7 (KO 1) - D 0 fight, so I don't have a clue if it's going to be really good, really bad or in between.

[Autobarn]

thanks for the enthusiasm

i can recall ppl hyperventilating about cleverly's fight with former jurgen braehmer KO victim brancalion...

[leforge]

thanks for the enthusiasm

i can recall ppl hyperventilating about cleverly's fight with former jurgen braehmer KO victim brancalion...

I looking forward to seeing Murray tonight!

[Neri]

The main fight for me this weekend. Looking forward to it, got my pizza, pepsi max and bar of whole nut at the ready.

Saturday night boxing is the best, far better than those friday's we had to put up with.

[Autobarn]

The main fight for me this weekend. Looking forward to it, got my pizza, pepsi max and bar of whole nut at the ready.

Saturday night boxing is the best, far better than those friday's we had to put up with.

i am also prepared. flask of tea & bag of donuts, by the PC next to cold window that doesn't close properly, for the RBR

[Autobarn]

couldn't even find any articles on BoxRec news!

go on, get back to trying to get attention off bomber 1, the lot o' you

[Horse]

couldn't even find any articles on BoxRec news!

go on, get back to trying to get attention off bomber 1, the lot o' you

[Horse]

i havent seen it but is Murrays eye as bad as what my friend said it ?
was

His left eye was dilated, a bit like David Bowie's.

[MightyWarrior]

Murray's eye looked bad, like an infection? Seems a bit risky, because the Ukranian looks durable.
He's only been stopped by one Paulas Moses, who came over to the Ukrain to beat him. Then the 25-0 Moses challenged for the world title. The WBA champ, Miguel Acosta ( who I've barely heard of ) came over to Namibia and KO'd home town hero Moses in 6. He must be good ? I wonder if the Murray people are aiming for him, he needs to get a big fight soon.

[whicker]

I've never seen Andriy Kudryavtsev W 34 (KO 15) - L 7 (KO 1) - D 0 fight, so I don't have a clue if it's going to be really good, really bad or in between.

Hummm, lost when he challenged for the title, and beaten no-one of note sinse. Seems (unfortuantly) to be a typical "lamb to the slaughter" Challenger, all too common in European "title" fights.

[Autobarn]

hopefully the eye is OK.

acsota is horrible as an opponent. rememeber that brilliant venezuelan, lorenzo parra, who held the WBA flyweight title about 6 years ago and made some superb title defenses before weight making did him in? acosta can box and move brilliantly like him. and then when he starts getting hurt, he goes all dirrell on his opponent, tackling and hugging him and falling over when cornered.

i would stay away from acosta. apparnelty top rank are planning some lightweight tourney for TR fighters only. who needs him club members like soto, acosta and miguel vazquez (who beat kim and prescott), maybe antillon, etc. i'd stay away from all that and look to someone lucrative like the marquez-katsidis winner.

[Autobarn]

I've never seen Andriy Kudryavtsev W 34 (KO 15) - L 7 (KO 1) - D 0 fight, so I don't have a clue if it's going to be really good, really bad or in between.

Hummm, lost when he challenged for the title, and beaten no-one of note sinse. Seems (unfortuantly) to be a typical "lamb to the slaughter" Challenger, all too common in European "title" fights.

lost a narrow fight that could have gone either way for the EBU belt, and beat the champ in an earlier fight...

[MightyWarrior]

hopefully the eye is OK.

acsota is horrible as an opponent. rememeber that brilliant venezuelan, lorenzo parra, who held the WBA flyweight title about 6 years ago and made some superb title defenses before weight making did him in? acosta can box and move brilliantly like him. and then when he starts getting hurt, he goes all dirrell on his opponent, tackling and hugging him and falling over when cornered.

i would stay away from acosta. apparnelty top rank are planning some lightweight tourney for TR fighters only. who needs him club members like soto, acosta and miguel vazquez (who beat kim and prescott), maybe antillon, etc. i'd stay away from all that and look to someone lucrative like the marquez-katsidis winner.

Yep I guess so, I'll have to try and catch some of Acosta - the lightweights, 20 years ago maybe the best division in boxing, Arguello, Duran, Pryor, Rosario, Mancini, seems a bit anonymous these days. I've not heard of the most of the top boxers there. Though Katsidis, if he survives Marquez, would be a great fight for Murray: he's probably strong enough to hang in there for awhile, and maybe bust up Katsidis a bit. He tends to mark up badly. Katsidis did look fantastic against Mitchell though.

[whicker]

I've never seen Andriy Kudryavtsev W 34 (KO 15) - L 7 (KO 1) - D 0 fight, so I don't have a clue if it's going to be really good, really bad or in between.

Hummm, lost when he challenged for the title, and beaten no-one of note sinse. Seems (unfortuantly) to be a typical "lamb to the slaughter" Challenger, all too common in European "title" fights.

lost a narrow fight that could have gone either way for the EBU belt, and beat the champ in an earlier fight...

Still, he lost. He hasn't beaten anyone of note sinse, not sure why he is entitled to another crack.. but whatever, thats how it goes.

[Autobarn]

he lost in mezaache's backyard. no way was he getting benefit of the doubt there. mezaache was the champ, kudriavtsev pressured him well - he's as good as the former european title holder. i don't see why ppl have a problem, as the man's clearly true EBU level.

[whicker]

he lost in mezaache's backyard. no way was he getting benefit of the doubt there. mezaache was the champ, kudriavtsev pressured him well - he's as good as the former european title holder. i don't see why ppl have a problem, as the man's clearly true EBU level.

Fair enough, it's at the end of the day personal feelings. I dunno, I just can't see this as anything other than a one sided win for Murray.

Betfair, too, with Murray at 1.05 (1/20 ish ) reflects this too.

[Deserter]

'Barn, you're skirting round the issue here. The fact that a 'hardcore' boxing forum is showing so little interest in this fight is a damning indictment on the way his career has been handled.
You and I have differing views about how far he can go, but there's no doubt he's a marketable fighter, which makes it all the worse that he's flying under the radar so much.
I know we debated the merits of this fight when it was first made and you tried to make a case for it, but the disinterest in it tells you all you need to know - I don't mean that condescendingly, I just think you're judging it purely from a fight perspective and I'm factoring in the business aspects and how it's going to raise his profile (or not as the case may be).

[Autobarn]

one reason kudy hasn't stepped up since mezaache - he felt he was robbed away from home, and a while back opted not to fight murray. glad he's changed his mind.

also, i'll give another reason: it was a long, hard, punishing fight. tit for tat all the way, one of the outstanding EBU title fights, up there with cleverly-murat, rhodes-moore, munroe-maludrottu.

it is sad - there should be more interest in murray vs a solid european challenger.

[Spud]

Still think John is a first rate boxer - worry sometimes about how easily he marks up.

[whicker]

There we go- a "solid" challenger, but one which Muray totally domianted.

As predicted.

[Autobarn]

the guy gave him some tough moments. wasn't strong or fast enough but a good defense, knew how to smother, how to lead and counter. enjoyable fight. better than the guy cleverly won his title from, a fight that had posters getting all excited. i feel my prediction was right, that it was a genuine european level opponent whose style and experience would make for a good spectacle.

[whicker]

the guy gave him some tough moments. wasn't strong or fast enough but a good defense, knew how to smother, how to lead and counter. enjoyable fight. better than the guy cleverly won his title from, a fight that had posters getting all excited. i feel my prediction was right, that it was a genuine european level opponent whose style and experience would make for a good spectacle.

Yeah, it was entertaining enough, but at no point did it really look like anything other than a Murray win.

To be clear, this isn't a critisism of either boxer, just my feeling on this sort of bout.

[lurkyshaka]

I thought Murray did a good professional job on a teak tough opponent. Some of the punches Murray hit that crazy b*st*rd with would have folded many fighters in half, but Kudryavtsev kept coming and mentally never gave up even though he was behind all the way. Kudryavtsev point blank refused to be controlled, but was physically broken down. I enjoyed the fight, good entertaining battle where both men can feel proud of their efforts.

Lesser fighters than Murray may have panicked when their power didn't have a more immediate effect, or they might have settled for the points win. But Murray was single-minded in his pursuit of the stoppage and went about getting it the right way. Chipped away till he had his man wilting. Mature showing from Murray where he battled through the difficult moments to win well.

He does get hit a bit, but his style means he's never going to be Willie Pep. He likes to grind his oppositin down, but he can also box a bit aswell. His jab was useful last night.

Few decisions to make now....does he stay at 135 and wait for Soto? Or does he gamble and step up to 140 for an Ortiz fight? Its a tricky one. He's obviously chomping at the bit to step onto the big stage and an Ortiz fight in Vegas on Khan's undercard is the big stage. But he'd be rising in weight against a guy GB are grooming. John would be very firmly the opponent in that fight and not the guy GB would be hoping to win. He'd get no favours. But the cash would be good and if he could win then the world would be his oyster with a shot at a world title at either 140 or 135 surely there for the asking.

But a loss could be damaging and push him right back down the pecking order at lightweight.

Tough decision....think that decision should ultimately come down to how comfortable he feels at 135. If he's making the weight ok and feels strong there and expects to still feel strong there for at least the next year or so, then i think he should stay put. But if making lightweight is a major struggle then he might not have much to lose by going to 140 now, as he's likely to be kept waiting for Soto.

[Deserter]

At the risk of sounding like a stuck record, what's most worrying is the way, whether it's pre-fight or post-fight, that this has flown completely under the radar. Hard to think of a fight at this level involving an exciting British boxer that has managed this level of utter obscurity. Almost a bizarre achievement.