By Jack Price
British middleweight Martin Murray claims that he has absolutely no fear going into his fight with WBC middleweight world champion Sergio Martinez in April.
The undefeated 30-year old will travel half way around the world to Argentina to take on the middleweight king in his home country in what looks set to be a very hostile environment for the Brit. However, he believes the expected crowd of around 50,000 will have no effect on his performance in the ring.
“It’s not daunting me at all,” said Murray. “The crowd is going to be very hostile but I’m always in the zone when I enter the ring so it makes no difference what people are doing around me.”
“I’ll just be focused on going in there and doing my job… Naturally they’ll be some nerves before the fight, but that’s a good thing. I always feel some nerves. I like them, and I perform off of them.”
This will not be Murray’s first world title challenge. In 2011 he challenged former WBA champ Felix Sturm and forced the tough German to a draw. His most recent performance came against Jorge Navarro in front of a packed crowd at the MEN Arena on the undercard of Ricky Hatton’s comeback. The St Helens man impressed all with a top-draw performance, stopping the Venezuelan in just six rounds.
“Those fights have been good preparation for me,” Murray added. “Having that one in Germany and then boxing at the MEN Arena showed I can perform in front of a big audience.”
“If I’d have just been boxing in leisure centres going into a big stadium could make me like a rabbit in headlights, but I know I always perform well on the big stage.”
He then went on to say: “Martinez is easily the best middleweight in the world so obviously I’ll need to raise my game to beat him, but myself and my team know that’s something we’re very capable of doing.”
Everyone realises it is going to be an extremely tough night for Murray on April 27th, but there are some fans out there, especially in Britain, that believe that he can cause an upset. He can’t match the boxing skills of his 37-year old opponent, but he will have the advantage of power and size. Will this be enough for him to beat one of the best fighters in the world today? We just don’t know. But one thing we do know is that Murray is relishing this opportunity and will most definitely try to make the most of it.
