Arthur Abraham vs Martin Murray Discussion

I'm looking forward to this one among the multitude of fights tomorrow, but don't see much discussion regarding it.

I'm confidently leaning towards Abraham, and not because I'm regurgitating the sentiment that Murray won't get a fair shake, more that his moving to 168 was a mistake.

Guys huge, and that was a part of his success at middleweight. Even after moving up to in his own words his "proper" weight class, he's still fighting guys like Jose Miguel Torres, who could be fighting at 147-154 if he wanted to. He turned pro at 140.

Much like Abraham, I feel Murray is going to lose a lot coming up in weight, and he's fought absolutely no one at SMW to get ready for Arthur. Difference being that Abraham has acclimated himself there for several years now.

I also think Arthur can still punch like a mule, and his string of decisions is partly due to some of those opponents being pretty durable. Sjekloca for example is as tough as they come, check out his fight with Bika. Guy is tough.

Wouldn't be surprised to see a stoppage here. Not a spectacular one, but Murray being shaken up and stopped standing, perhaps prematurely. Arthur and his power is fairly easy to diffuse with appropriate movement, but Arthur has heavy hands that I think are going to be effective against a fellow high guard fighter who doesn't bend at the waist or utilize much lateral movement under pressure. The ref certainly won't let Murray take the brutal beating he took against Golovkin.

Thoughts?

 

Also, I think uppercuts will be key for Abraham here. Murray has an effective and tight guard but Sturm routinely found a home for his right handed uppercuts against Murray, consistently snuck them in there.

 

Paul Smith is a natural super middleweight, so I don't see that as damning here. Murray is moving up and actually fighting men his own size for once.

Also, there's a difference between the types of sharp power shots that the likes of Groves will lash out with to stop opponents, and thudding power shots that grind opponents down utilized by the likes of Golovkin and Abraham.

 

Sturm had Murray going in the last 10 seconds of the 12th. I wonder if we could see some vintage Abraham here, stopping a fighter in Murray who has been stopped, and almost stopped, in the championship rounds. :think

 

Solid post. It's not hard to survive against just about anyone when you go into a completely defensive shell like Murray did against Golovkin. I think it's odd when a fighters claim to fame is having lasted such and such a length of time against a superior fighter

Kassim Ouma performed so much better against Golovkin that it's an insult, and he didn't cover up and do nothing either.

 

I feel like Paul Smith put in am inspired, career best performance against Abraham the first time around. He got something of an ass kicking the second time around.

I see a similar result in the Crolla/Perez fight. One fight blowing hot, the other cold. The rematch more than likely will play out very differently.

 

Last minute thoughts?!?!?! :nut