BoxRec

JOHN MURRAY - John has stepped in for the injured Nicky Cook to fight a 6rnd contest on the undercard of the Jeff Lacy v Robin Reid World title fight in the USA on the 6th August. It was agreed that the original Cook opponent Ivan Alvarez - even thougth a consistent looser - was to experienced at genuine world class for a 20 year old and we are awaiting confirmation from Jess Harding on whom he will fight. This will be both good exposure and a great experience for John as Sky look to fill the void of genuine good fighters left after the move of Sportsnetwork fighters to ITV.

STEPHEN FOSTER JNR - After the shoulder injury -which made Stephen withdraw from his first title defence due in June - we eased our way back with a 5 rnd stoppage of Jim Betts at the Bolton Arena last Saturday. The injury had effected training and therefore the first few rounds were cautious before opening up in the 4th and 5th forcing Betts to retire in his corner,now this is out of the way we await a firm date to defend the WBU featherweight title.

ALI NUUMBEMBE - Has returned to Namibia for 4 weeks to visit his family before returning for the new season in September.Ali told us before he went away that he feels he is ready now to fight anybody in the UK and to start to get him title chances, we believe he is right and that no one in the UK holds any fears - lets hope we can deliver.

Good move if Murray gets a fight in the US , I think Ricky Hatton did the same thing and had a couple of fights over there when he was starting out. Its always good experience, and maybe it will help him focus a bit more, in his last fight he made it harder for himself trying to please his fans, took a few more shots than i would have liked him to take.