Murray gets surprise crack at Felix Sturm

St Helens tough man Martin Murray has been given an unexpected crack at a ‘world’ title when he travels to Mannheim, Germany to take on WBA middleweight champion, Felix Sturm. The date, Friday 2nd December.

Sturm was expected to take on Matthew Macklin in a rematch of their June contest when many thought the Birmingham man unlucky not to take the belt from the naturalised German. Sturm won by way of a split points verdict.

Whatever the reason for the rematch not now going ahead (one source claims that Sturm’s camp did not want to pay Macklin’s asking price), the beneficiary is British, Commonwealth and WBA Intercontinental champ, Murray. The 28 year-old (23-0) has flown under the radar in terms of publicity whilst many others arguably less deserving of recognition have garnered many column and web page inches. This might have worked in his favour in securing the opportunity as there will be an inevitable ‘Martin Who?’ from the Germans, who might very well be expecting an easier (and cheaper) night than they would have experienced from Macklin. If so, that would be a huge error in judgement. Murray, who agreed to fight Macklin some time ago before the latter took a more lucrative route, should present the German national hero with plenty of problems.

"I'm not going to do anything different," an excited Murray told BoxRec News this morning, referring to his preparations.

"What I've been doing has been working and I'm going to do what I usually do, which is everything Oliver (Harrison, trainer) says.

"A lot of people think they can beat me but it's different when they get in there and feel how strong I am.

"I'm going to grind Sturm down. I can't wait."

Image courtesy Hatton Promotions/Mark Robinson