by James Slater: Tonight, on the under-card of the Witter-Bradley clash in Nottinghman, unbeaten lightweight John Murray of Manchester kept his blemish-free record as he out-pointed late replacement Youseff Al Hamadi, the Syrian-born Dewsbury native, over 8 competitive rounds. The referee, Terry O’Connor, was the sole scoring official and he made the 23 year old Murray a 2 point winner at 77-75 ..
Despite getting the win, the highly touted Murray did not look good. Boos were heard from the crowd as the verdict was made public, and Al Hamadi certainly made the hot prospect look quite ordinary at times in there. Al Hamadi used his usual hit-and-move style to good effect, and caught Murray with a quite alarming number of shots. Murray was quite simply the slower man most of the time – both on his feet and with his hands. Flicking out lots of fast jabs and also scoring with sharp combinations, the 30 year old outsider was doing himself proud.
A bad cut was opened high up on the side of Murray’s head in the 5th, the result of an accidental head clash. Now looking a mess as well as putting on what was likely the worst performance of his career so far, it looked as though Murray just might be upset. Grinding his work out, the 23 year old had other ideas, however.
By the last three rounds Al Hamadi’s output had faded and he was showing clear signs of fatigue. Murray, despite not looking anywhere near as good as he has in the past, was scraping home. Some of the action was messy, and there were a number of clinches. Still, Murray was hit way too much for his liking and his corner read him the riot act on a couple of occasions. Murray listened and forced his way to victory. Scoring his best punch of the fight in the 8th and final round, Murray cracked his man with a good right hand to the head. Al Hamadi took the blow, and made it to the final bell – even coming back with some fast shots of his own.
With the win, Murray improved to 24-0(12), but he will not want anymore performances like this one any time soon. The capable Al Hamadi fell to 4-9-1(1) and despite what his poor record may say, the 30 year old is a talented operator.