Former five-time world title challenger Martin Murray announced his retirement from boxing after 13-years as a professional.
The 38-year-old Murray (39-6-1, 17 KOs) is coming off a one-sided shellacking against WBO super middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders (30-0, 14 KOs) on December 4th at the Wembley Arena in London, England.
Murray lucked out with Saunders, hand-picking him for an arguably undeserved title shot. Saunders schooled the former British and Commonwealth middleweight champion for 12 one-sided rounds.
Murray’s biggest career fights:
- Gennadiy Golovkin – TKO 11 loss
- George Groves – UD 12 loss
- Felix Sturm – Draw 12
- Billy Joe Saunders – UD 12 loss
- Arthur Abraham – SD 12 loss
- Gabe Rosado – MD 12 win
It was hard to watch how depleted Saunders looked compared to when he was at his best in fights against world champions Felix Sturm, Gennadiy Golovkin, and Sergio Martinez.
It was interesting how Murray was given so many shots at a world title during his career. You can argue that Murray with the right promoters and paved the way for him to get so many title shots.
It didn’t hurt that Murray lacked power and wasn’t a threat to any of the champions. If Murray were viewed as a huge risk, he would have never gotten a chance to face GGG, Martinez, Saunders, Sturm, and Arthur Abraham.
“I hope that I’m an example of what you can achieve with hard work,” said Murray to Sky Sports News. “I went around the world and fought the best – and pushed them all the way too, so I’m happy and proud of what I achieved.”
Murray felt that he deserved wins in his title shots against Sergio Martinez, Arthur Abraham, and Felix Sturm. It seemed like he failed to let his hands go in all of those fights.
We saw the same thing from Murray in his loss to Saunders on December 4th. Although Murray looked good at times, he failed to throw enough punches to impress the judges.
In Murray’s 11th round knockout loss to Golovkin in 2015, he surprised fans by saying that he didn’t think GGG hit that hard. It was an odd thing to say at the time, given that he’d just been knocked out by Golovkin.
In the last three years, Murray had been beating obscure lower-level opposition. His best since 2017 was a controversial 12 round majority decision over Gabe Rosado in his hometown of Liverpool, England. Many boxing fans saw that fight as a robbery with Murray getting a gift.
Saunders made himself look bad in choosing Murray to defend his WBO super-middleweight title against rather than one of the relevant contenders Edgar Berlanga, Daniel Jacobs, or David Benavidez. Saunders has built his carer on fighting guys like Murray instead of the top guys, so it wasn’t all that surprising that he hand-picked him.
Murray’s last non-controversial win over a quality fighter came way back in 2013 when he defeated Siarhei Khamitski. Compared to Murray’s other wins, his victory over Khamitski was impressive, but the fight was very competitive.