Gennady ‘The Assassin’ Golovkin set to face Martin Murray. Will Murray pose a threat to Golovkin’s reign?

Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin is set to take on Englishman Martin Murray, on February 21st 2015. Golovkin 31-0 (28 KO’s) KO% 90.32 currently in possession of the WBA (Super) & IBO Middleweight world titles, and also the Interim WBC Middleweight title, will put all his straps on the line against the Liverpool pugilist Martin Murray 29-1 (12 KO’s) KO% 38.71. Murray is the current holder of the WBC Silver middleweight title.

The Kazakhstan born rising star, Golovkin, recently made somewhat easy work of tough Mexican operator, Marco Antonio Rubio. ‘GGG’ stopped Rubio in the second round with a thudding, looping left hook to the temple area of ‘El Veneno’ The Mexican seemed to have his senses scrambled slightly, as he appeared to mistime the count from the referee, getting to his feet a fraction too late.

This stoppage victory extended the current KO streak of Golovkin to a highly impressive 18 KO’s on the bounce. People say Golovkin, has not been tested as yet, so this KO run is not as it seems. You can only do what you can do, with what is put in front of you. It does seem there are a lot of Golovkin haters out there and I cannot fathom why.

Gennady Golovkin, 32, is a gentleman, a very, very humble guy, always has a big smile on his face and is great for the sport of boxing. The man is smashing people up. What more do the fight fans want?

Martin Murray, also 32, faced off against Italian boxer Domenico Spada, in Monte Carlo last Saturday night. Golovkin was ringside, watching the action unfold.

Murray, was deducted a point for an accidental headbutt in the 3rd round, resulting in a cut over the right eye of Spada. This incident and the cut seemed to fire up the Italian, who was swinging for the fence at will, looking to hurt Murray. However, Murray evaded the wild onslaught of Domenico Spada and continued to bank the rounds until the bout was called to a halt in the 7th round after several inspections from the ringside doctor.

The scores by the judges at ringside had the bout 67-66, 68-63 and 69-67, all in favour of the St Helens’ man, Murray.

To Spadas’ credit, he wanted to continue, and to be fair, I have seen worse cuts in my time. Regardless, I am not a doctor. We now have the stage set for the fight to take place, between as I see it, two undefeated fighters. I believe Martin Murray won his bout in Argentina against Sergio Martinez back in April 2013. I am certainly not the only one to have this stance.

This is without a shadow of a doubt, the biggest fight thus far in the careers of both men.

Golovkin will pose a substantial threat to any fighter in the world that he steps through the ropes with, not only with his KO power, his movement, cunning and the way he cuts off the ring. However, Golovkin can be hit, that’s plain to see.

We are still waiting to see how the Stuttgart based assassin, handles a smack on the chops from a power puncher.

Murray doesn’t have anything near the destructive power that ‘GGG’ generates, so it is unlikely that we will see that question answered. Nevertheless, Martin Murray does have some crisp boxing skills, so we will see how Golovkin deals with technical ability in the pros.

Murray is naturally a big middleweight and comes into the ring looking quite some size.
The Englishman Murray, is around an inch and a half taller than Golovkin and also has the benefit of a three inch reach advantage.

Could the aforementioned play a part in the proceedings?

Murray at times leaves his body unguarded, seemingly preoccupied with protecting his head. We know for a fact that Golovkin will be looking to take advantage of this opening and annihilate Murray to the ribs, as we have seen several times before. I’m certain Martin Murray will be wary of this and look to tighten things up a little.

I’m unsure where the fight will take place, as Martin Murray has legal problems getting into America, due to his chequered past.

While it may be difficult for Martin Murray to defeat Gennady Golovkin, Murray has done one thing that seemingly none of the other top contenders, or bigger names in the division have actually done, and that is actually signing up to fight the dangerous Golovkin. Martin Murray deserves credit for that.

Martin Murray recently told ‘The Liverpool Echo’ “I’ve got the tools to beat any middleweight out there. I wouldn’t be taking the fight if I didn’t think I could win. A lot of his opponents have gone into the fight already beat. You won’t get that with me. I’m gonna go in there and stand up to him.”

A very brave and manly approach to the fight from Murray, but is this wise?

I believe that if you stand up to Gennady Golovkin, you will likely not just fall down, but be smashed down. If Murray does adopt this approach, I personally don’t think the fight will go beyond the middle distance. Golovkin, for me, will win the bout via stoppage.

I certainly won’t be counting Martin Murray out and I’m sure the Liverpool man will be hoping that he isn’t counted out either.