John Murray (boxer)

John Murray
Statistics
Real name	John Murray
Rated at	Lightweight
Height	5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Nationality	English
Born	(1984-12-20) 20 December 1984 Manchester, England
Stance	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	33
Wins	31
Wins by KO	18
Losses	2
Draws	0
No contests	0

John Murray (born 20 December 1984, Manchester, England) is an English lightweight boxer. He is a former Scottish and Irish lightweight champion. He is trained by Joe Gallagher at the Denton Gym in Manchester^[1] and is the brother of former British Olympian Joe Murray.^[2]

Professional career

Murray's first professional fight took place in September 2003 with a 4 round points win over journeyman Peter Buckley. Over the next two years Murray was busy in the ring scoring 15 more wins in 15 fights before in December 2005 defeating Ignacio Mendoza for the WBC World Youth lightweight title. He made one defence of his title against Moebi Sarouna and scored decent wins over Ben Odamattey and Lorenzo Bethea before defeating Dean Hickman at the Ice Arena in Nottingham for the English title. In October 2006 he was awarded the prestigious young boxer of the year award at a ceremony held in London, an award previously held by the likes of Ricky Hatton, Frank Bruno and Barry McGuigan.^[3]

British Champion

Following the Hickman victory, Murray fought twice more against journeyman opponents before meeting Salford boxer Lee Meager for the vacant British lightweight title in July 2008. He won the belt after the referee stopped the fight in the 5th round. Following the fight Meager, a promotional stablemate, announced his retirement.^[4] The first defence of his title was made on 17 January 2009 at the Robin Park Centre in Wigan. Murray managed to keep hold of the belt after scoring an 8th round stoppage over Aberdeen's Lee McAllister.^[5]

Murray's second defence of the title on 13 June 2009 against Stoke fighter Scott Lawton ended before it had even begun when Murray weighed in for the contest 2oz overweight. Despite efforts to get down to the lightweight limit, Murray was unable to shift the weight and was stripped of the belt.^[6] The contest with Lawton still went ahead and resulted in a sixth round stoppage for Murray ensuring that he was still undefeated but no longer a champion.^[7] As punishment for failing to make the weight in a championship contest Murray, his trainer Joe Gallagher and his manager Mike Marsden were each fined £1500 by the British Boxing Board of Control.^[8]

Murray reclaimed the belt on 3 October 2009 after scoring a fourth round stoppage against former British and European champion Jonathon Thaxton at the Altrincham Leisure Centre.^[9] He had his fourth official British title fight on 7 May 2010 against Welsh boxer Gary Buckland this time in Widnes. The fight was also for the vacant European title and resulted in an 11th round stoppage win for Murray who was also able to keep his Lonsdale Belt for good.^[10] Murray having won the belt outright chose to vacate in order to defend his European crown with Gavin Rees winning the vacant title against John Watson on 6 November 2010.^[11]

European Champion

Murray made the first defence of the European title on 25 September 2010 against the Ukrainian boxer Andriy Kudryavtsev at the Robin Park Arena in Wigan. Kudryavstev had previously fought for the title in 2009 losing to Anthony Mezaache in 12 rounds and had held a number of titles including the Ukrainian national title and the European External Union title.^[12] Murray wore down his opponent to score a 9th round stoppage after a high tempo contest. Speaking after the fight Murray said that he knew the fight would be tough after watching Kudryavstev on tape and said that now he wanted to fight the top guys in the lightweight division saying he'd love a "world title shot before Christmas".^[13] Murray's next fight however was to be on 2 April 2011, traveling to London's York Hall to defend against Spanish champion Karim El Ouazghari. Both fighters were warned and deducted a point during the fight which Murray eventually won on points over the 12 round distance.^[14] The fight against El Ouazghari was Murray's first since joining up with promoter Frank Warren and was described by some as a "scrappy" performance. Murray summed up by saying "It wasn't my best fight, it was like having my debut again. I have cleaned up at domestic and European level and I am looking at moving on".^[15] Warren himself said that he'd like to see a fight between Murray and Kevin Mitchell in the future saying "the fans would like to see, but the bottom line is that John is the champion and it's all about what he wants to do."^[15]

Kevin Mitchell fight

Murray vacated the European belt in order to fight Kevin Mitchell who was not eligible to challenge for the title due to suffering a loss in his preceding fight with Michael Katsidis. Murray's trainer Joe Gallagher said that John should have been fighting for a world title but as the fight wasn't mandated then beating Mitchell would be a sure way of getting noticed.^[16] Mitchell himself had said that the fight represented a "last chance saloon" for him as the fight with Katsidis had resulted in a third round stoppage. Mitchell had cited "personal problems" as having marred his preparation for that fight.^[17] The two met at the Echo Arena in Liverpool on 16 July 2011 with Murray suffering a first career defeat via stoppage in the 8th round.^[18] Mitchell had hurt Murray in the 7th round and finally scored a knockdown in the 8th before the referee stepped in to call a halt to the fight in what was described as a "superb" contest.^[18]

World title shot

On 7 October 2011 it was confirmed that despite a first career defeat in his previous fight Murray would take on Brandon Rios for the WBA Lightweight title on 3 December in New York City. However, Ríos was overweight and was subsequently stripped of his title and had to pay Team Murray $20000 from his purse. The vacant WBA Lightweight title is only able to be won by Murray.

Boxing record

31 Wins (18 knockouts, 13 decisions, 0 disqualification), 2 Losses, 0 Draws[19]
Result	Record	Opponent	Type	Rd	Date	Location	Notes
Loss	31–2	Brandon Ríos	TKO	11 (12), 2:06	3 December 2011	Madison Square Garden, New York City, United States	For vacant WBA lightweight title, which could only be won by Murray as Rios stripped for not making weight.
Loss	31–1	Kevin Mitchell	TKO	8 (12)	16 July 2011	Echo Arena Liverpool, United Kingdom
Win	31–0	Karim El Ouazghari	UD	12 (12)	2 April 2011	York Hall, Bethnal Green, London, United Kingdom
Win	30–0	Andriy Kudryavtsev	TKO	9 (12)	25 September 2010	Robin Park Centre, Wigan, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom
Win	29–0	Gary Buckland	TKO	11 (12)	7 May 2010	Kingsway Leisure Centre, Widnes, Cheshire, United Kingdom
Win	28–0	Jon Thaxton	TKO	4 (12)	3 October 2009	Leisure Centre, Altrincham, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom
Win	27–0	Scott Lawton	TKO	6 (12)	13 June 2009	Robin Park Centre, Wigan, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom
Win	26–0	Lee McAllister	TKO	8 (12)	17 January 2009	Robin Park Centre, Wigan, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom
Win	25–0	Lee Meager	TKO	5 (12)	11 July 2008	Robin Park Centre, Wigan, Greater Manchester], United Kingdom
Win	24–0	Youssef Al Hamidi	TKO	PTS (8)	10 May 2008	Nottingham Arena, Nottingham, United Kingdom
Win	23–0	Miguel Angel Munguia	UD	10 (10)	7 December 2007	MGM Grand Las Vegas, United States
Win	22–0	Dean Hickman	TKO	4 (10)	9 November 2007	Ice Arena, Nottingham, United Kingdom
Win	21–0	Lorenzo Bethea	TKO	7 (10)	5 May 2007	MGM Grand Las Vegas, United States
Win	20–0	Ben Odamattey	TKO	5 (8)	20 January 2007	Alexandra Palace, Wood Green, London, United Kingdom
Win	19–0	Billy Smith	UD	6 (6)	6 October 2006	Goresbrook Lesiure Centre, Dagenham, Essex, United Kingdom
Win	18–0	Mouibi Sarouna	UD	10 (10)	15 September 2006	Alexandra Palace, Wood Green, London, United Kingdom
Win	17–0	Billy Smith	TKO	6 (6)	12 July 2006	York Hall, Bethnal Green, London, United Kingdom
Win	16–0	Ignacio Mendoza	TD	8 (10)	2 December 2005	Ice Arena, Nottingham, United Kingdom
Win	15–0	Tyrone Wiggins	KO	4 (8)	29 October 2005	Lac Leamy Casino, Gatineau, Quebec, Canada
Win	14–0	Azad Azizov	TKO	3 (8)	23 September 2005	George Carnall Leisure Centre, Davyhulme, Manchester, United Kingdom
Win	13–0	Johnny Walker	UD	6 (6)	6 August 2005	St. Pete Times Forum, Tampa, Florida, United States
Win	12–0	Mounir Guebbas	UD	8 (8)	8 July 2005	Leisure Centre, Altrincham, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom
Win	11–0	Karl Taylor	UD	8 (10)	6 March 2005	Tara Leisure Centre, Shaw, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom
Win	10–0	Harry Ramogoadi	TKO	4 (4)	9 December 2004	Acton Court Hotel, Stockport, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom
Win	9–0	Daniel Thorpe	TKO	2 (6)	26 November 2004	Leisure Centre, Altrincham, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom
Win	8–0	Ernie Smith	UD	4 (4)	31 October 2004	Tara Leisure Centre, Shaw, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom
Win	7–0	Dariusz Snarski	TKO	2 (6)	24 September 2004	Ice Arena, Nottingham, United Kingdom
Win	6–0	Anthony Hanna	UD	4 (4)	2 June 2004	National Ice CentreIce Arena, Nottingham, United Kingdom
Win	5–0	John Paul Ryan	TKO	1 (4)	12 March 2004	Ice Arena, Nottingham, United Kingdom
Win	4–0	Norman Dhalie	TKO	2 (4)	30 January 2004	Goresbrook Leisure Centre, Dagenham, Essex, United Kingdom
Win	3–0	Jason Nesbitt	UD	6 (6)	21 December 2003	Reebok Stadium, Bolton, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom
Win	2–0	Matthew Burke	KO	1 (4)	18 October 2003	MEN Arena, Manchester, United Kingdom
Win	1–0	Peter Buckley	UD	4 (4)	6 September 2003	Leisure Centre, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, United Kingdom

References