Murray to challenge for Commonwealth title

St.Helens' Martin Murray will dispute the Commonwealth middleweight crown vacated by Darren Barker against Tanzania’s Francis Cheka at Ponds Forge Arena in Sheffield on 21 May. The 18-fight undefeated Murray impressed when winning the inaugural Prizefighter middleweight tournament in November 2008 and after registering a further six wins is now ready to be let off the leash.

The 28-year-old Cheka has 19 wins from his 26 contests (six defeats and one draw) and has fought in Britain on three separate occasions, losing each time. The Tanzanian was outpointed by current British super-middleweight champion Paul Smith, Geard Ajetovic and former European middleweight champion Matthew Macklin between 2007 and 2008. Cheka will come into this on a five-fight winning streak accumulated back in his native Tanzania.

Rather bizarrely, in February, Cheka retained the obscure International Circuit Boxing middleweight title by stopping reigning Muay Thai middleweight champion Japhet Kaseba in nine rounds. Kaseba’s credentials were somehow deemed significant enough for the ICB to approve him as a contender to fight in a traditional boxing match, despite the fact that he had only previously fought as a boxer once before, a decade ago.

Murray last fought in February, finishing strongly to decision the rugged Shalva Jomardashvili on points over six rounds.