What now for Murray?

I would bang him in with rees for the european!

 

He needs to change his game up a bit, plodding straight forward doesn't work against the big boys.

 

brush up on his defence and boxing skills

 

Rees is a good shout. Rematch with Mitchell would be good too.

 

He has GOT to learn to move his head, hes got to quicken his feet, and hes gotta start throwing the jab.
Hes not quick or powerful enough just to march straight through people. Hes very strong so needs to be a pressure fighter always, but needs to be far more thought behind it, and at the moment everytime he faces a puncher will be the same result as hes way to easy to hit.
Rees v Murray would be good.

 

Toughness only gets you so far. He can go much further simply cos his skills are not yet polished. His balance is awful as he continously falls out of position. His defence needs to change from hands up to moving his head, catching and blocking. He needs to open things up with a good jab, dig to the body to slow em down and pick his shots to the head. He also has no combos, he just looks like he is brawling.

 

Is he capable of making these adjustments?

And even if he does, his biggest challenge is to overcome the mental scarring Saturday will have on him.

 

John Murray is a good european level fighter. He still has alot to offer the sport.

 

First chance to get on since the fight... most of what's above is true, but it's not like Mitchell was trouncing Murray from the word go. I was watching it in a pub so couldn't hear the commentary. Certainly Mitchell's punches were sharper and better placed, but in the early going he was struggling and John rarely found it hard to catch him.

What did John in was a lack of variety from round 5 on. If he'd ignored head attcks and gone to Mitchell's body more often, the fight might have been different.

Mitchell's tactics were pretty appalling really. He allowed a mauling fighter to basically batter him in the early going. Murray's lack of one-punch power allowed him away with that, but to me that didn't seem dissimilar to the Mitchell we saw against Katsidis. He still backs up in straight lines, he still walks onto shots...

Murray needs to do two things - work on his movement. Against Thaxton he wouldn't stand in front, he'd step to the side and move around his opponent. Considering Mitchell was pretty static on the ropes, this would have paid dividends. But fighting low quality opposition can stop you doing those things.

Second, he needs to develop his left hook. He's a good body puncher but all too often was getting no leverage from the right hand and should have dipped into a left hook. Mitchell was open for it and it's the one place his head movement wouldn't have helped.

Other than that... well, his defence was porous. He was eating jabs and then bringing his hands up AFTER the shot had landed.

It was a close fight while it lasted (and a very exciting one). If Murray can develop some more wrinkles in his game, he could do better in a rematch.

 

Lay off the booze 3 weeks before a fight :good
Rematch Mitchell

 

Even when Murray had Mitchell on the ropes Mitchell was making him miss and catching him with uppercuts, not a bad inside game actually at least mitchell held when he had too aswell. Mitchells jab is world class aswell as anything else that comes off his left. Mitchells upper body movement is very good to his footwork is good , though yes he must adjust and pivot more rather than go back in a straight line. His defence seems average, Murrays defence was porous as you saw by his face.

 

The rematch would get numbers, it wasn't a walkover at all early on. Rees would do well. His best options £ wise if his confidence is up to it.

 

I've heard it will be Rees next for Murray,would rather see Mitchell fight him next before having another crack at a world title. I think Rees beats Murray,not sure ****** would would put him in with Rees straight away.

 

Funnily enough Dan, I thought Murray looked slower than normal in the Mitchell fight, & I am the last man to make excuses for him here.

If you are telling the truth here? Thats interesting.