John Murray (boxer)

John Murray (born 20 December 1984) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2003 to 2014. He held the English lightweight title from 2007 to 2008, the British lightweight title twice between 2008 and 2010, and the European lightweight title from 2010 to 2011. He also challenged once for the vacant WBA lightweight title in 2011. John is the brother of British former Olympian Joe Murray.[1] Since retiring, Murray has opened his own gym in Reddish, where he trains both amateur and professional boxers.[2]

John Murray
Murray in 2009
Statistics
Weight(s)	Lightweight
Height	5 ft 8 in (173 cm)
Reach	70 in (178 cm)
Nationality	British
Born	20 December 1984 Manchester, England
Stance	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	36
Wins	33
Wins by KO	20
Losses	3

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, 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. 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.[4]

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.[5] 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.[6] 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.[7]

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.[8] 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.[9] 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.[10]

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.[11] 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".[12] 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.[13] 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".[14] 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."[14]

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.[15] 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.[16] 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.[17] 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.[17]

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. Murray lost the fight by TKO in 11th round. 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 was only able to be won by Murray.

Professional boxing record

Professional record summary

36 fights	33 wins	3 losses
By knockout	20	3
By decision	13	0

No.	Result	Record	Opponent	Type	Round, time	Date	Location	Notes
36	Loss	33–3	Anthony Crolla	TKO	10 (12), 2:20	19 Apr 2014	Manchester Arena, Manchester, England	For WBO Inter-Continental lightweight title
35	Win	33–2	John Simpson	TKO	2 (10), 2:58	1 Mar 2014	Exhibition and Conference Centre, Glasgow, Scotland
34	Win	32–2	Michael Escobar	TKO	4 (6), 1:43	22 Nov 2013	Bowlers Exhibition Centre, Manchester, England
33	Loss	31–2	Brandon Ríos	TKO	11 (12), 2:06	3 Dec 2011	Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, US	For vacant WBA lightweight title
32	Loss	31–1	Kevin Mitchell	TKO	8 (12), 1:46	16 Jul 2011	Echo Arena, Liverpool, England	For vacant WBO Inter-Continental lightweight title
31	Win	31–0	Karim El Ouazghari	UD	12	2 Apr 2011	York Hall, London, England	Retained European lightweight title
30	Win	30–0	Andriy Kudryavtsev	TKO	9 (12), 2:39	25 Sep 2010	Robin Park Arena, Wigan, England	Retained European lightweight title
29	Win	29–0	Gary Buckland	TKO	11 (12), 1:46	7 May 2010	Kingsway Leisure Centre, Widnes, England	Retained British lightweight title; Won vacant European lightweight title
28	Win	28–0	Jon Thaxton	TKO	4 (12), 2:30	3 Oct 2009	Leisure Centre, Altrincham, England	Won vacant British lightweight title
27	Win	27–0	Scott Lawton	TKO	6 (12), 1:50	13 Jun 2009	Robin Park Arena, Wigan, England
26	Win	26–0	Lee McAllister	TKO	8 (12), 1:00	17 Jan 2009	Robin Park Arena, Wigan, England	Retained British lightweight title
25	Win	25–0	Lee Meager	TKO	5 (12), 2:20	11 Jul 2008	Robin Park Arena, Wigan, England	Won vacant British lightweight title
24	Win	24–0	Youssef Al Hamidi	PTS	8	10 May 2008	Nottingham Arena, Nottingham, England
23	Win	23–0	Miguel Angel Munguia	UD	10	7 Dec 2007	MGM Grand Garden Arena, Paradise, Nevada, US
22	Win	22–0	Dean Hickman	TKO	4 (10), 2:50	9 Nov 2007	Ice Centre, Nottingham, England	Won vacant English lightweight title
21	Win	21–0	Lorenzo Bethea	TKO	7 (10), 0:28	5 May 2007	MGM Grand Garden Arena, Paradise, Nevada, US
20	Win	20–0	Ben Odamattey	TKO	5 (8), 2:33	20 Jan 2007	Alexandra Palace, London, England
19	Win	19–0	Billy Smith	PTS	6	6 Oct 2006	Goresbrook Lesiure Centre, London, England
18	Win	18–0	Mouibi Sarouna	UD	10	15 Sep 2006	Alexandra Palace, London, England	Retained WBC Youth lightweight title
17	Win	17–0	Billy Smith	TKO	6 (6), 1:36	12 Jul 2006	York Hall, London, England
16	Win	16–0	Ignacio Mendoza	TD	8 (10)	2 Dec 2005	Ice Centre, Nottingham, England	Won vacant WBC Youth lightweight title; Unanimous TD after Murray could not continue due to forehead swelling
15	Win	15–0	Tyrone Wiggins	KO	4 (8), 2:43	29 Oct 2005	Casino du Lac-Leamy, Gatineau, Quebec, Canada
14	Win	14–0	Azad Azizov	TKO	3 (8), 1:54	23 Sep 2005	George H Carnall Leisure Centre, Trafford, England
13	Win	13–0	Johnny Walker	UD	6	6 Aug 2005	St. Pete Times Forum, Tampa, Florida, US
12	Win	12–0	Mounir Guebbas	PTS	8	8 Jul 2005	Leisure Centre, Altrincham, England
11	Win	11–0	Karl Taylor	PTS	6	6 Mar 2005	Tara Leisure Centre, Shaw, England
10	Win	10–0	Harry Ramogoadi	TKO	4 (4), 2:02	9 Dec 2004	Acton Court Hotel, Stockport, England
9	Win	9–0	Daniel Thorpe	TKO	2 (6), 2:36	26 Nov 2004	Leisure Centre, Altrincham, England
8	Win	8–0	Ernie Smith	PTS	4	31 Oct 2004	Tara Leisure Centre, Shaw, England
7	Win	7–0	Dariusz Snarski	TKO	2 (6)	24 Sep 2004	Ice Cenre, Nottingham, England
6	Win	6–0	Anthony Hanna	PTS	4	2 Jun 2004	Ice Centre, Nottingham, England
5	Win	5–0	John Paul Ryan	TKO	1 (4), 2:05	12 Mar 2004	Ice Centre, Nottingham, England
4	Win	4–0	Norman Dhalie	TKO	2 (4), 2:37	30 Jan 2004	Goresbrook Leisure Centre, London, England
3	Win	3–0	Jason Nesbitt	PTS	6	21 Dec 2003	Reebok Stadium, Bolton, England
2	Win	2–0	Matthew Burke	KO	1 (4)	18 Oct 2003	MEN Arena, Manchester, England
1	Win	1–0	Peter Buckley	PTS	4	6 Sep 2003	Leisure Centre, Huddersfield, England	Professional debut

References

1. Sheehan, Pat (7 August 2008). "Joe king of ring; Beijing Olympics". The Sun.
2. Murray Machines on Facebook. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
3. "Murray joins boxing greats" Manchester Evening News
4. "Murray retains lightweight title" BBC Sport
5. "Murray loses time on the scales" Archived 17 June 2009 at the Wayback Machine Boxing News
6. Murray maintains unbeaten record Sporting Life
7. "Murray hit by £1500 fine" Manchester Evening News
8. BBC Sport | Murray reclaims British title
9. BBC | Murray stops Gary Buckland to win European crown
10. "Rees hopes for European title tilt" BBC Sport
11. Andriy Kudryavstev professional record Archived 16 March 2015 at the Wayback Machine Boxrec
12. Sky Sports | Solid defence for Murray
13. "Murray extends winning run" Sky Sports
14. "John Murray happy to face Kevin Mitchell en route to world glory" The Telegraph |
15. Trainer Talk : Joe Gallagher Archived 23 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine Boxrec
16. BBC Sport | Mitchell admits that fight against Murray is last chance
17. "Kevin Mitchell stops John Murray in 8th round" BBC Sport