Former WBO title challenger next for Murray

Commonwealth middleweight champion Martin Murray will face Brazil’s Carlos Nascimento for the vacant WBA International middleweight crown on the undercard of Matthew Hatton’s European welterweight title defence against Roberto Belge at Bolton Arena on 26 November.

Nascimento, a former WBO title challenger down at light-middleweight, should provide the 20-fight unbeaten Murray with a step up in class as he presses for a ‘battle of Britain’ showdown against either Darren Barker or Matthew Macklin. St Helens’ Murray captured the Commonwealth crown with a comfortable points victory over Australia’s Peter Mitrevski in July but should be asked more questions against Nascimento.

The 32-year old Brazilian has won 25 of his 27 fights (21 early) but the majority of his victories have been compiled against limited South American opposition in Brazil and Mexico. Nascimento surrendered his unbeaten record in an unsuccessful challenge to WBO light-middleweight champion Serhiy Dzinziruk in Germany in May 2007 after he was stopped in the eleventh round.

The Brazilian bounced back with eight straight wins, capturing the WBC light-middleweight Latino title in the process, before he was found wanting again by New-Jersey based Pole Pawel Wolak who floored Nascimento and forced him to retire at the end of the fifth of their meeting in New York last October.

The Brazilian, now campaigning at middleweight, has since been restricted to just one outing in 2010, a third-round blow-out of countryman Odair Jose Theodoro in July who had a 1-16 record going in.