There has been a lot of controversy this week around the highly anticipated fight between Manchester fighter John Murray and Stoke fighter Scott Lawton. On the day of the weigh-in, John Murray had to be present on the scales between 1pm and 2pm, however he didn’t arrive until 1.50pm. When he turned up, he was wearing a sweat suit and towels suggesting he had been trying to shift some last minute weight. Stepping on to the scales, he stripped down completely only to find he was over the weight limit by 0.08 kgs. Because he had arrived late, this left him only 5 minutes to try and lose the additional weight but he simply didn’t have time to shift it. As a result, Murray was stripped of his British title making it effectively vacant, meaning that he Scott could still win the title but Murray couldn’t retain it even if he won.
As a result, the BBBC (the British Boxing Board of Control) will want to take some form of disciplinary action as they were extremely disappointed with Murray. Additionally, he would potentially have lost the chance to fight in other match ups by falling out with promoter Mick Henessey, and maybe lost some of his appeal to other fighters by no longer holding the belt.
Because of all this controversy, Murray was under even more pressure to have a good performance. He was already under pressure to do well as Scott Lawton has fought both Amir Khan and John Thaxton (Thaxton stopped him in 7, Amir in 4) and as he is keen to fight both fighters, this was seen as an interesting bench mark. On the ring entrance, Murray looked fired up and started the fight explosively. Clearly he was taking a gamble to try and KO Lawton early on, but it seemed to paying off as he battered Lawton in the first round with viscious hooks and uppercuts resulting in Lawton falling through the ropes in the ring. The fight could almost have finished here, but Lawton bravely continued on. The next rounds saw sustained pressure from Murray, but Lawton retaliated with good looking uppercuts, forcing Murray to be a bit more considered in his approach. As the fight went on Murray did seem to tire (unsurprisingly after the relentless pace of the opening rounds) but eventually got a stoppage after Lawton retreated into his shell and stopped throwing punches.
After the fight, Murray said it was on odd feeling as he almost felt like he had lost despite a good performance because he had lost his title. In terms of using Lawton as a bench mark, Lawton said that the three fighters (Murray, Thaxton & Khan) were good in different ways. He described Amir as being overwhelming with his blistering handspeed, Thaxton as always dangerous with his power punches and Murray as just ‘a nightmare’ with his constant pressure.
This event was also supposed to be the next fight for Tyson Fury, however his bout was cancelled due to a combination of a back injury and having difficulties finding will victims / opponents! This event also showcased the British pro debut of Steve Barnes (he actually turned pro at 17, but can’t fight in England as a pro until 18 so has had 2 fights in Ireland), a young fighter out of the Ingle gym. The fighter looked in immense condition and already had lots of fans that had travelled to the fight. However, his style was very Naz (Prince Naseem) influenced, as he switched stance and tried to land unorthodox shots. He was fighting Latvian fighter Jevgenijs Kirillovs, who despite lacking some style is a tough and awkward fighter as Bradley Evans discovered when they fought to a draw in his last fight.
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Posted in: Boxing Fight Review
Tags: amir khan, John Murray, John Thaxton, Scott Lawton, Tyson Fury
