John Murray gets eliminator shot
Good news for John Murray as it has been announced that a world-title shot may not be far away.
The British lightweight has been given the opportunity with a WBC eliminator title shot against Daniel Estrada, providing he comes through his European defence against Andriy Kudriavtsev.
Should the European champion come out these bouts the victor, he will face Humberto Sato for the WBC strap, but the road to glory laid out before Murray is a treacherous one full of many potential hazards.
The Manchester-born fighter looked far from impressive in his last outing against Welshman Gary Buckland back in May. Although he took an 11th-round KO he really had to dig deep and grind out a win against a decent, but far from elite fighter.
Fair enough it was a warrior’s performance from Buckland, but Murray didn’t have that class to displace the Welshman that you would expect from a top-level fighter. Still, he got the job done and perhaps it was just a bad night at the office.
Murray doesn’t want to get too far ahead of himself though and undo his good work by looking towards Soto before Estrada and indeed Kudriavstev. The Russian doesn’t boast an outstanding record at 33-7, but is a potential banana skin for Murray next month.
As for Estrada he is without a doubt a step up in calibre for the Englishman. “Tremendo” is a tricky customer with a long reach which packs a surprising amount of power. The Mexican has a record of 23-1-1 with 19 knockouts; however his card boasts no one of any real note with quite a few featuring loss heavy records.
If Murray is aiming for the big time he should be able to get past both Kudriavtsev and Estrada and on to Sato, who is a whole different kettle of fish.
For now Murray needs to learn to keep his concentration higher and really dig out results like he did in the latter half of the Buckland fight. He has the ability but question marks remain over whether he can reach the heights he is capable of.
As a fighter there is no denying that he is a well-rounded boxer, possesses a good chin, decent power, an unblemished record and can fight inside and out. He simply needs to push himself every fight and set higher standards.
It’s a great time for British boxing though as Murray joins the likes of Nathan Cleverly, Kel Brook, Nathan Jennings and others eyeing up a world title.
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