Great show tonight. All of the middleweights came across well. Andy Lee was very insightful, easy to listen to. Everyone seemed to respect Murray, although great to see that Barker was willing to fulfil a gentleman's agreement. Macklin was honest about his mistakes. Barker - nice guy, we already knew that, but has that inner steel. He's no soft touch. As fighters, they all believe they are the best and that shone through without any suggestion of arrogance. Great watch.
I list them in the order i rate them Murray = Better than Barker and toughest fighter would stop Barker if they fought Barker = Good boxer and has done well but wont be champ long Andy Lee = Good boxer but will be lucky to win a big title , has chance v Barker Mathew Macklin = Good career but is now British or Euro level at best
Thought it was a bit too comfy and uneventful, none of them have actually fought each other so there was no tension in the air like the Heavyweight round table with Bruno and Lewis. Can you imagine a round table consisting of Benn, Eubank, James Toney and Steve Collins...now that would be fun. Also none of these middleweight aren't exactly world beaters, sure Murray put in a good performance against Martinez but Sergio went into that fight with some serious injuries and i have no doubt a fully fit Martinez from a few years ago would have stopped Murray late. As for Barker, Lee and Macklin they are just also rans in the division whether they have a title or not.
Murray was very assured on this tonight. He almost had everyone bowing to his superiority which was quite interesting. Barker less so than Macklin and Lee. Barker showed a bit of steel though. Lee is a very articulate guy, its clear he is a real student of the game and will make a terrific pundit when he hangs up his gloves. Macklin is a strange one, you can see theres needle with himself and Murray. Macklin and Lee are 2 of the youngest gatekeepers of the division in my opinion, i'm undecided as to whether Murray is going that way too though. None of them are or ever will be top of their weightclass though.
Errrr....okay you obviously can't handle the truth. Murray and his team know he'd get the crap beaten out of him by GGG so turned down a fight against him. He got gifted a draw against Felix Sturm and although he performed well against Martinez it was only after the 4th rd when Sergio damaged his knee that he even came into the fight. Murray is a good honest pro that i would rank in the Top 10 but somewhere between 6-10 so no world beater and he'd be beaten fairly easily by the divisions best like a fit Martinez, GGG, Peter Quillen, Chavez jr at SuperMiddle, and Sturm....even guys like Vera, Geale, Rosado and N'Jikam would probably beat him. Lee will never be anything more then a Middleweight Top 10 Gatekeeper ranked between 11-20. Macklin is same as Lee, had a best day against Martinez but wouldn't be surprised if he gets beat by Lamar Russ who he faces in his next fight. Barker is a Top 10 Middleweight but realistically between 6 and 10 as well and i doubt he'll get past Sturm anyway, infact i'm sure Felix will beat him and not controversially either.