Murray facing McAllister rematch after Euro title shot is delayed again

Manchester’s John Murray’s seemingly never ending quest to challenge for the European lightweight title has again been delayed. Purse bids due to be opened yesterday for the right to stage Murray against Ukraine’s Andrei Kudriavtsev were scrapped following Kudriavtsev’s decision to withdraw his interest in contesting the vacant EBU championship.

The EBU has now nominated Scotland’s Lee McAllister as Murray’s latest European co-challenger and has stipulated a deadline of 12th April for purse offers and agreements. Murray stopped McAllister in eight rounds in defence of his British lightweight crown in January 2009 but the Scot has since rebounded by winning the Commonwealth title.

The unbeaten Murray’s (28-0, 16 kos) painstaking wait to challenge for European honours has been dragging on for almost six months. After defeating Jon Thaxton to retain his British title in his last fight in October, Murray was named official challenger for the European lightweight championship then held by France’s Anthony Mezaache.

Despite speculation that Murray’s promoters Hennessy Sports had reached an agreement, Mezaache eventually elected to vacate his title in February in favour of pursuing a WBC world title challenge, prompting the EBU to pit Murray against Kudriavtsev for the vacant championship.

The good news for Murray, albeit slightly, is that it seems unlikely that McAllister’s backers (Tommy Gilmour and Matchroom Sport) will pass on an opportunity to challenge for the European title, despite Murray’s relatively comfortable victory over the Scot in their previous meeting. McAllister, known as the ‘Aberdeen Assassin’, is supremely confident in his ability and has expressed his willingness in setting the record straight against the Manchester man.

The bad news for the inactive Murray is that McAllister is unlikely to be fit to box until the summer. The Scot has recently sustained an elbow injury which forced him to withdraw from his planned Commonwealth title defence against Ben Murphy on the undercard of David Haye’s world heavyweight duel with John Ruiz on 3 April.