BoxRec

They have, it seems decided to show Murray V al Hamedi on ITV4. No disrespect, but surely Adan Amar's bout would have been better viewing? Remember, it was originally going to be Matthew Hatton he was facing.

I like Murray, but a fight V a journeyman who has taken it at the 11th hour? Why are they showing this one?

I guess its not Murray's fault Fewkes had to withdraw.

Although I DID like Murray's music!

Its an 8 rounder, they have time to show other fights.

DG. wrote:Its an 8 rounder, they have time to show other fights.

Yeah- true- but they cross to ITV 1 at 10pm, I assume for the two main events. I guess hightlights of other fights might be squeezed in, if time allows. I think Amar's fight will go the distance, though, so expect editted highlights.

2 rounds down by my reckoning.

Given Murray 3 and 4. Sloe start vs a spoiler.

Rd 5 to Al-Hamidi

chesh wrote:Rd 5 to Al-Hamidi

McGuigan has Murray three up for crying out loud.

Can't believe McGuigan's got Murray 3 up after 6 rounds..

Al Hamadi using his head a lot.

Mureray winning. Al Hamidi just trying to spoil. Terrible fight to make at the last minute.

Murray looks crap. No jab, flat footed, little head movement, loading up on shots too much... and as I type he rocks Al Hamidi. He's still looked poor though. The guy is a spoiler, but Murray hasn't progressed the way I thought he would when I first saw him.

An entertaining fight- fair play to both- but Murray didn't look overly impressive, although that cut may well have been a distraction.

Murray does nothing on the outside, always waits untill he is inside to throw shots.

Chris Aston making sure he gets his face in the background for the Hamidi interview.

John Murray looked absolutely awful. Youssef Al Hamidi is a very cool guy. I like him a lot.

Murray's not fought in 5 months, trains hard for Fewkes twice, then gets a bad few days when he doesn't know who he's fighting then the ultimate spoiler - Hamidi - is brought in who cuts him with fouls and smothers throughout.

I thought Murray's timing looked off.

Horrid week. They must be glad to have it out the way. Murray has looked great in the past, I still think he has the goods but he has to be kept busy and there's nothing to be gained from fighting these spoilers like Hamidi and Munguia. You have to get new challenges to rise to, and I think he'll go off the boil if he isn't given a British title shot to bring his best out.

Seriously, Thaxton should have been delivered to keep Murray hot after the Hickman fight. It's not the end of the world and JM can pick things up if he gets a decent British foe soon - maybe on the Thaxton-Meager undercard - and then face the winner.

How can Murray progress when he's in this kind of limbo? FFS make Murray-Thaxton or Murray-Meager (if Meager becomes British champ aagin) and defend vs guys like Limond before looking to the EBU title.

I'm surprised none of the big promoters have decided to give Al Hamidi a chance as something other than the designated loser yet, as he's really impressed the last few times i've seen him.

He was robbed against John Simpson. No exageration, Simpson was on his home show and British champion, and got completely outworked and outclassed.

Very very unlucky against Michael Hunter, who admittedly wasn't on his game.

Beat Anthony Crolla.

And then ran John Murray close in a scrappy fight.


Surely someone wants to take a chance on him???

Dissapointed in Murray - I cannot see him progressing any further to be honest.

Khan would anhilate him.

Al Hamidi is down in the Boxrec schedule to fight Scott Lawton in 7 days.

well i hope Al Hamidi got paid well tonight, he took his lumps and went for it, full credit to the lad.
Same with the polish guy that fought Froch, he could of laid down in the 2nd after taking a couple of the right hands from Froch, but he stuck to it and took some big punches without going down.

Both guys earnt their money.

I was very disappointed with Murray tonight. I know he's been pissed around this week, but he was woeful. I really rated him as one of our top prospects, and actually fancied him to beat Khan - but if he can't beat a game, yet limited opponent like that convincingly, i'm worries he's going nowhere.

Where was his boxing?? Did he even throw a job tonight? He should have just used his superior skills and boxed from the outside, work off the jab and keep the fight at a distance tonight, he'd have cruised to an easy win, and looked tidy doing so. The fact he nearly lost tonight speaks volumes about his judgement, composure, and ability to make use of his obvious advantages.

Unfortunately, I don't think he's nearly the prospect I and many others thought he was. I hope i'm wrong.

Autobarn wrote:Murray's not fought in 5 months, trains hard for Fewkes twice, then gets a bad few days when he doesn't know who he's fighting then the ultimate spoiler - Hamidi - is brought in who cuts him with fouls and smothers throughout.

I thought Murray's timing looked off.

Horrid week. They must be glad to have it out the way. Murray has looked great in the past, I still think he has the goods but he has to be kept busy and there's nothing to be gained from fighting these spoilers like Hamidi and Munguia. You have to get new challenges to rise to, and I think he'll go off the boil if he isn't given a British title shot to bring his best out.

Seriously, Thaxton should have been delivered to keep Murray hot after the Hickman fight. It's not the end of the world and JM can pick things up if he gets a decent British foe soon - maybe on the Thaxton-Meager undercard - and then face the winner.

How can Murray progress when he's in this kind of limbo? FFS make Murray-Thaxton or Murray-Meager (if Meager becomes British champ aagin) and defend vs guys like Limond before looking to the EBU title.

Limmond would murder Murray, would love the fight and once limmond gets earl out the way hopefully it might happen, murray is so overrated and i doubt he will ever win british title,.

Bigped, he's been put on the backburner and it has shown in the last 2 fights. Add to that events of these past few days., 5 months of rust..he ends up getting a horrid TV fight with Hamidi as his 1st bout of the year. You can't say he's overrated based on one fight.

It was a bad choice not to put Murray-Fewkes on Apr 4 Thaxton-Romanov undercard IMO. Or at least, not to even give him a warm up when the Mar 29 date fell through.

The circumstances of a fight always has an effect on the fight and these last 2 bouts have been classic cases. A young fighter is one in embryo and as such has to be developed, has to be given fights that will alow him to grow. The past 5 months have been a no man's land.

Murray is a young pressure fighter. Has to be kept busy and motivated. Murray's all about rhythm, about breaking guys down steadily. These jerky types who spoil don't let you build any rhythm. How can you get your shots off, and shake off rust when the opponent has his arms round you and smothers all the time?

2 bad performances and it's not the end of the world. He has ground to make up but I'm confident he'll do it. Public perception always goes from one extreme to another. There's never any middle ground.

He can hammer the Thaxton-Meager 2 winner and things will be OK and pick up. Lots of good British title defences to be made - Limond, Purdy - a number of good 2ndary fights - Watson, Buckland - and then see what's happening with the EBU belt.

I rate Murray, but when I heard Al Hamidi was the opponent I knew the fight would be something like this factoring the inactivity. Can you rate someone and expect that to happen? Yes. Because I'm a realist. Murray won't ever look good vs these small, spoiling, dirty fighters that don't want to exchange punches. If the aggressive Spaniard Lora has been delivered we would have seen punches traded and that energy that you could see straining to get out would have been released. Murray would probably have got a good, hard workout by Lora, but he didn't end up fighting Lora and he looks like a bundle of frustrated energy to me.

Right, Khan has never acknowledged Thaxton's challenge. So what is Hennessy waiting for? After Thaxton and Witter's bad losses, I think it's bad to put too much trust in that Ingle style of boxing as it's so unreliable. Let's see Murray on the Thaxton undercard v a decent orthodox 135 or 140-pounder and then shoot for the British. Mick Hennessy can really do things with this kid but I reckon it has to start now, after Murray's cuts are healed, or things will never be right.

John Murray has never been good. I don't know what all the hype is about, and shock that he has trouble with not getting hit. I watched him fight once some time ago and I came to that conclusion. If you're getting hit with bombs in the first few fights you need to ask yourself is this the game for you.