Martinez vs. Murray - Murray Belongs at this level, but didn't win: Review & Scorecard.

First things first, Murray deserves to be in the ring with ANY current World-Level Middleweight. He’s come up short against Sturm and Martinez on the cards, but he can hold his head up high and continue to get the big fights.

But as much as I can sing Murrays praises – it was a close fight which (excluding the knock down) he didn’t win. Reviewing the fight objectively and not including the Knock Down in the 10th round – I had the score of 114-113 on the night, why? Murray was just too inactive and allowed Martinez to control (or at least look in control).

That age old adage of “you have to beat a champion to BEAT a champion” comes in to play here, and for the rounds that Murray wasn’t active, he allowed Martinez to be.

The first three rounds were all Martinez, jabbing from range and finding the target to the body with ease. Murray closing distance, yet was unable to find range with the jab that Barker had much success with, for these first three rounds it seemed Murray was slightly out of his depth. This seemed to change from the 4th round, Murray started to take centre and control the ring, his foot placement on the outside of the always tricky Martinez had improved almost instantly and he was able to step in with his jab-straights more often and started to find success. Murrays high guard was paring off and it seemed the middle rounds were going to be times where Murray would wake up…

For the first time I’ve seen, Martinez was starting to do what the likes of others he had fought have done… complain. Although other reports online state a head butt caused the cut (watching it back it looks as though a right hook before Martinez stepped in to Murray caused the cut), low blows were thrown and Murray hitting behind the head, none of these appeared to be severe infringements on Murrays part. The truth of the matter is, Murray was getting to Martinez and it really showed. There was a point in one round later in the fight in which Martinez complained about his left hand and that he had damaged it in the 4th – how true this is remains to be seen.

Upon learning the WBC open scoring system was in force and a strange ruling on head clashes on cut fighters (in which a point is deducted if the non-cut fighter inflicts further damage if the heads come together – whether by accident or not), I had a feeling this may had put the wind up a few fans, when in reflection, none of which had any outcome on the fight.

Throughout the middle rounds, the fight was back and forth, each fighter finding success, but Murray finding a knock down and beginning to find more success with 2 to 3 punch combinations and easily trapping Martinez to the ropes, the issue is, this was too infrequent and Murray allowed Martinez to steal rounds in the middle.

The 8th, 9th and 10th were consistent from Murray and it seemed that if he had kept this pace up, Martinez would begin to break. With the legitimate knock down in the 8th, Murray was able to control the fight and although Martinez was able to throw flashy punches with loud responses from the crowd, they were not connecting and Murray was able to counter. This led to the knock down that (in my opinion) was as legitimate as any knockdown you are likely to see.

With everything left to fight for in the 11th and 12th, these rounds were the ones I thought Murray was going to come out strongest in, but from the uncalled knock down onwards. Murray appeared to do something that haunted him from the Sturm fight, he seemed to switch off again. The 11th round should have been the round Murray stepped up the pressure and continued to force Martinez to the ropes but after the uncalled knock down, he didn’t.

The difference in experience between the two fighters showed now, Martinez seemingly without power, head movement or the footwork we all know and love him for was gone, yet he was able to stop Murray from sticking out a jab by throwing his own combinations that done nothing other than score points. Martinez looked faded, but his ring smarts were still there. This continued through the 12th round, with Martinez nullifying any attack that Murray had left and stole the rounds through activity and stopping cleaner effective punches being thrown.

As I said, Murray should hold his head up by going 12 rounds and getting to one of the trickiest fighters of the last 5 years. But I do have to question how much Martinez has got left and whether Murray, if he pushed that little more could have GUARANTEED the win, after all, this is boxing… the knock down would have changed the outcome of the scored slightly on the official cards (a draw) but we all know you can’t rely on accuracy of scorecards.

At the same time, I cannot call the fight a blatant robbery as others are calling it, simply based on the fact that Martinez (although looking very faded) still controlled the rounds where Murray was inactive…

Scores by Rounds:

Martinez Murray
1 10 9
2 10 9
3 10 9
4 9 10
5 10 9
6 9 10
7 10 9
8 8 10
9 9 10
10 9 10
11 10 9
12 10 9
TOTAL 114 113

I cannot argue with your card at all. I think the last two rounds were what cost Murray, too. Excellent performance and his stock is a lot higher now.

Once Barker and Macklin fight (and likely lose) their fights, we need to see a best of British Middleweight tourney. Would be excellent

Well done to Murray but I agree that the last 2 were the rounds that lost him the fight. While I congratulate him it has to be noted that Martinez looked awful. Macklin is still the best of the British trio imo. Murray was lucky to get a draw agaisnt an older more shopworn version of Sturm than the one Macklin clearly beat imo and the Martinez he fought was a year older off the back of 2 career shortening injuries (the knee in particular)

Would like for the British lot to go at each other but Barker and Macklin could be on the end of heavy beatings against Chavez (yet to be confirmed) and GGG respectively, so maybe it won't happen

Cheers Sean, I would have posted sooner but I've been involved in some heavy arguments with Victor Conte and Memo Heredia/Angel Hernandez over the weekend! (Check out my Twitter feed, it was intense). I'm thinking about getting an interview with Conte for the site somewhere down the line.

Martinez didn't look himself from the 4th round and Murray should have capitalised on it (at times it looked as though he did). It wasn't a frustrating thing to watch though, Murray did well against a guy with impeccable boxing skills and intelligence - he'll learn from it.

The fact is, Martinez did what he had to in order to win.

I agree WHU - Martinez may be shop worn, he's a guy that relies on reflexes and speed. For boxers outside of their prime they are the guys who seem to turn old over night... Martinez looked like that. I hate to take away from Murrays performance as he DID do well, but when you weigh up the facts, maybe he could have pushed to do more against Martinez if he is on the slide.

The good news is that JCC Jr. has shown interest in a potential fight with Murray, a fight I think would be quite interesting.

Would be interesting as Murray wasnt allowed into the US to fight Chavez last year

I personally dont rate Chavez at all and I said when Murray-Jr was going ahead that Murray has a great chance with his engine,toughness and size and i'll stick by that if it does happen

I've got a couple of questions regarding this.

Was the Ring/Linear title on the line? I watched the weigh in and Martinez was only declared the WDC middleweight champion.

Has/was Martinez been stripped of the linear title?

Secondly Murray was WBA interim middleweight champion, is he still holder of that title or does he get stripped for fighting Martinez.

I had it to Martinez by 1, from memory, meaning if the 10th round knockdown had been called correctly it'd have been a draw which would be a pretty fair reflection given how much Murray out power-punched him and had higher accuracy on all counts according to BoxRec.

My card was:

Martinez Murray
1. 10 9
2. 10 9
3. 10 10
4. 9 10
5. 9 10
6. 9 10
7. 10 9
8. 8 10
9. 9 10
10.9 10
11.10 9
12.10 9

T= 113 115

Seems like it was rounds 3, 4 and 5 where we differ and they were rounds that could have gone either way or potentially been scored level.

However when you factor in that the slip in round ten should really have been a knockdown, the more telling shots over the fight were Murrays and the clearly won rounds were Murrays I do think he can feel pretty hard done by. The judges, unsurprisingly, gave every possible round they could to Martinez but he tended to only nick them at absolute best.

I still think Murray won handily on Saturday.

Outfought, out punched and knocked down twice a p4p top 3 fighter.

If that's not enough to win, I dont know what is.

He landed more and threw more, not only that but he was the aggressor all night.

Martinez landed hardly any shots and when he did they had no effect.

Murray dropped him twice and just made him look normal.