John Murray is Conflicted on His Future in Boxing

[ianmx5]

http://www.BS.com/?m=show&id=18692

[lefthook82]

Excellent article. I really felt for John Murray there and I think if he was to fight Khan I would now be rooting for him( lets face itm Khan isnt gonna be having money troubles any time soon)

He made a good point about having to fight often to build a base. I remember hatton fighting minimum 4 times a year coming up and thats how he built his fanbase. Once a year and poeple won't care

Its a shame Hennessey's '£5m' fighters fund ran out so quickly

It is also a shame how such a natural fight likeThaton v Murray is not being made. I thought Hennesey was the antidote to Warren,i,e Good competitive fights between evenly matched foes. Cant get more evenly matched than that

What exactly is his excuse and how is this Mezzanine dude more worthy than Murray

[Spud]

http://www.BS.com/?m=show&id=18692

Meaty Mick will not be happy about this article.

[lefthook82]

Was thinking that myself@ spud but it is just stone cold truth

[Coco]

It's been said many times before but Hennessy just doesn't get his boys the work or the paydays, i'm amazed Froch stayed with him.
If you are in FW's cleak you get paid well, fight regularly and get title opportunities

[Spud]

Was thinking that myself@ spud but it is just stone cold truth

Personally I think its refreshing a fighter says it how it is - so I admire John Murray for the article - however Meaty Mick will not like things like this being aired on this or any other site.

[Spud]

It's been said many times before but Hennessy just doesn't get his boys the work or the paydays, i'm amazed Froch stayed with him.
If you are in FW's cleak you get paid well, fight regularly and get title opportunities

Froch has always been well paid - thats why he has stayed.

It is going to be very interesting indeed in the next few months - with rumours of ITV not having a pot to p*ss and further rumours there maybe a merge between ITV4 and Channel 5 - will boxing continue - furthermore is Meaty Mick's contract with ITV as a whole or is it with ITV 4 - with only big fights being shown on the main channel.

I have been banging on about this for sometime - the credit crunch is biting and doing so big time - Fight Acadmey lost out to ITV 4 for a live show due to money - it is my opinion that is why Meaty Mick could not entice Taylor over here for Froch - and now Thaxton and Murray are due big fights - either Mick will have to dig very deep into his pockets or something is going to go bang.

My best guess is due to money and politics - we will see Thaxton v Murray for the European title in May - that makes tonights fight massive for not only the fighters but Hennessy too.

[tonyevs]

If SN didn`t have such a tallented stable of fighters at the moment you`d fully expect Murray to move over to them pretty quickly .. but I just don`t see SN being too interested in another lightweight

[Twinkle Toes]

I feel for the lad, at least he wants to get out there and box regular, and it's about time meaty stepped up to the plate and delivered the Thaxton fight for him.

I'd like to see the Hennessey nuthuggers come and defend their man actually *cough*rhino*cough*

[TerribleTerry]

With the exorbitant ticket prices Meaty Mick is charging for the 14th March show in Brum I would have thought he should have been able to at least give Murray an 8 rounder to shake off the cobwebs..

As it is the undercard is stocked by local lads borrowed from PJ and Errol, Pat Cowdell, Nobby etc

[DG.]

Top domestic fighters in debt is a terrible thing.

1 of the reasons Hatton is ZERO in my book for not wantong to 'give someone a payday'!

I hope Murray gets a good fight soon and makes some money. Hennessy has done the same with Witter.

If there was £5M in the pot for Calzaghe why are these guys not getting fights?

[banjo]

Top domestic fighters in debt is a terrible thing.

1 of the reasons Hatton is ZERO in my book for not wantong to 'give someone a payday'!

I hope Murray gets a good fight soon and makes some money. Hennessy has done the same with Witter.

If there was £5M in the pot for Calzaghe why are these guys not getting fights?

Was there really £5 million in the pot though?

[whiskey]

I dunno.

If John is un-motivated by his opponent he is usually only 75% on the money come fight night.

There was a big difference in the Murray that fought Meager and McAllister than the Murray that fought lesser men.

Everyone can blame the promoter, but at the end of the day Murray has beaten anyone worth beating at British level except Amir Khan and Jono Thaxton.

Other than the two above, If I were to find 4 more fights for Murray this year then i would struggle to think of names.... Fewkes... Gethin... Lawton... that's about it really.

A Breidis fight would be great - but again he is tangled up in a contract wrangle between Wazza and Arena box. Thats why his last fight was pulled at the 11th hour when Wazza intervened.

I cant see Wazza letting Breidis fight Murray - because if Murray wins then he will have everyone's attention when he calls out Amir.

I suppose Murray's only option is a Thaxton fight - at least we know that could be made.

But does anyone want to see the fledgling Murray possibly beaten by more experienced Thaxton ?

Id rather he didn't fight him to be honest.

I'd personally like to see Thaxton vacate and then challenge for a world title, then Murray box for the vacant Euro title.

[DG.]

A Breidis fight would be great - but again he is tangled up in a contract wrangle between Wazza and Arena box. Thats why his last fight was pulled at the 11th hour when Wazza intervened.

Fwank did not stop the fight. Bredis won on a dq.

http://forum.boxrec.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=96734

[DG.]

Top domestic fighters in debt is a terrible thing.

1 of the reasons Hatton is ZERO in my book for not wantong to 'give someone a payday'!

I hope Murray gets a good fight soon and makes some money. Hennessy has done the same with Witter.

If there was £5M in the pot for Calzaghe why are these guys not getting fights?

Was there really £5 million in the pot though?

Doubt it!

[TheCobra]

Fantastic interview and very frank from John Murray there. Personally, I REALLY rate Murray, always have done, I think he can get to world level and I think given some refinement he can hold a world title.

Mick Hennessey, it has to be said, isn;t the most powerful of promoters in this country, so Murray has a decision to make. I think he should go with allegedly, call him what you want, but he will get better money, be on more high profile bills and if he wants a fight every 3 months he will get on and be on SKy Sports 1 to boot with it, just like Kel Brook is getting.

I don't know what the situation is regarding contracts etc, but if that isn't a big issue, I;d say Murray, get negotiating with Warren and get your career going mate. Carl Froch waited around for aaaages for his world title shot and is STILL struggling for opponents becuase Hennessey just doesn;t have the promotional clout to bump his fighters into the mainstream press like Warren can.

I agree with everything Murray has said in the article, he NEEDS tests and he needs them now, Tyson Fury is a big fat lump who won;t even be challenging for anything for another couple of years and yet Hennessey is promoting him like mad, it;s all very strange.

[lightheavy]

John Murry is a class act,great engine and chin,think he would beat thaxon and Khan hands down love to watch him hope he gets his fights he deserves

[Spud]

Be a very interesting post fight interview tonight - lets see if Jon Thaxton mentions Murray - all british clash would be good!!

[sweetscience]

i thinks its pretty obvious he is going with hatton

weres his clothing and his bro has gone with him

[whatashambles]

i thinks its pretty obvious he is going with hatton

wears his clothing and his bro has gone with him

I spoke to Ray Hatton at the Hatton/Pac press conference today about how they were going with the promotion side of things, how many cards were they gonna put on etc.
He said they would be putting on a fair few cards, several in Manchester, Bristol and possibly London. From what he said and including the March cards they have about 6/7 planned. He also said they would be sorting something out in terms of TV.
With Matthew Hatton, Joe and John Murray they could sell a card out in Manchester every 3 months without much trouble and it's the type of card I'm sure someone like Setanta would be keen to pick up on.

[Spud]

i thinks its pretty obvious he is going with hatton

wears his clothing and his bro has gone with him

I spoke to Ray Hatton at the Hatton/Pac press conference today about how they were going with the promotion side of things, how many cards were they gonna put on etc.
He said they would be putting on a fair few cards, several in Manchester, Bristol and possibly London. From what he said and including the March cards they have about 6/7 planned. He also said they would be sorting something out in terms of TV.
With Matthew Hatton, Joe and John Murray they could sell a card out in Manchester every 3 months without much trouble and it's the type of card I'm sure someone like Setanta would be keen to pick up on.

Don't take everything for granted with regards TV deals!!! thats all I am saying!!!

John's next fight - Jon Thaxton - why not?

[whatashambles]

i thinks its pretty obvious he is going with hatton

wears his clothing and his bro has gone with him

I spoke to Ray Hatton at the Hatton/Pac press conference today about how they were going with the promotion side of things, how many cards were they gonna put on etc.
He said they would be putting on a fair few cards, several in Manchester, Bristol and possibly London. From what he said and including the March cards they have about 6/7 planned. He also said they would be sorting something out in terms of TV.
With Matthew Hatton, Joe and John Murray they could sell a card out in Manchester every 3 months without much trouble and it's the type of card I'm sure someone like Setanta would be keen to pick up on.

Don't take everything for granted with regards TV deals!!! thats all I am saying!!!

John's next fight - Jon Thaxton - why not?

With Thaxton's cut, will he make it in time for a May fight?

[black panther]

I feel for John Murray. He looked sensational very early in his career but then went stale for a while, like struggling with Ernie Smith, a man he had ko'ed previously. He's right he needs to be kept busy. But the thing is can Hennessy keep him busy? IMO Murray has to wait 6 months for a fight because of tv dates - also Hennessy needs a headline act "to fill out" his tv dates and Murray can be classed as such as he's a British champion.

Murray said he would have wanted to fight on the Thaxton bill but I'm thinking would it have been financially viable to have two fights on the bill which are like main events? The promoter would have to fork out considerably to cover purses for a euro title fight and a british title fight or so I would have thought. I like Hennessy, I think he is a good promoter and his bills are usually good with competitive fights throughout but if he cannot keep Murray busy he will be forced to look elsewhere.

I'm not familiar with contracts between fighters and promoters: when a fighter signs a contract I thought it was for a number of fights. But if a fighter is left on the shelf for a year according to this he can't jump ship because he's still under contract? If I was a pro fighter, I would only sign for numbers of fights within a specific time frame. Or is that how it is done? Appreciate it if someone could enlighten me.


PS. Thanks for the article/interview Terry!

[Pugilist-specialist]

If Murray boxed in January and fights in May, why is everyone banging on about him having to wait 6 months ?

this is the second feature I have read on Murray in 2 months by the same journo. No questions about him pulling out of the fight in December ? No questions about his alleged fight with a doorman ? Has Murray spoken of using cannabis before ? No questions here ?

[Autobarn]

He didn't have a fight with a doorman.

He had to wait ages from winning the title to the McAllister original date anyway. He won the title last summer and he had to fight McAllister in what, November? That's a massive wait anyway, then he got injured.

But certainly, ppl will naturally brign up that Murray did postpone. But coming off that long wait between fights, you'd think he'd be kept busy. Murray wanted to defend the British title on the Thaxton undercard. Instead we got that pointless "step up" of Danny McIntosh. Thaxton didn't need to fight the Frenchman, we could have had Murray-Thaxton for both titles but no...

He does need to be kept sharp. Thaxton has been deposed so we don't need Murray v Thaxton anymore. Make Murray-Mezaache. if Murray has to wait that long for a fight, make it one that counts ie a step up for a bigger title.