John Murray (born 20 December 1984) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2003 to 2014. He held the English lightweight title from 2007 to 2008, the British lightweight title twice between 2008 and 2010, and the European lightweight title from 2010 to 2011. He also challenged once for the vacant WBA lightweight title in 2011. John is the brother of British former Olympian Joe Murray. Since retiring, Murray has opened his own gym in Reddish, where he trains both amateur and professional boxers.. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
Professional career Murray's first professional fight took place in September 2003 with a 4-round points win over journeyman Peter Buckley. Over the next two years Murray was busy in the ring scoring 15 more wins in 15 fights before in December 2005 defeating Ignacio Mendoza for the WBC World Youth lightweight title. He made one defence of his title against Moebi Sarouna and scored decent wins over Ben Odamattey and Lorenzo Bethea before defeating Dean Hickman at the Ice Arena in Nottingham for the English title. In October 2006 he was awarded the prestigious young boxer of the year award at a ceremony held in London, an award previously held by the likes of Ricky Hatton, Frank Bruno and Barry McGuigan."Murray joins boxing greats" Manchester Evening News
British Champion Following the Hickman victory, Murray fought twice more against journeyman opponents before meeting Salford boxer Lee Meager for the vacant British lightweight title in July 2008. He won the belt after the referee stopped the fight in the 5th round. Following the fight Meager, a promotional stablemate, announced his retirement. The first defence of his title was made on 17 January 2009 at the Robin Park Centre in Wigan. Murray managed to keep hold of the belt after scoring an 8th round stoppage over Aberdeen's Lee McAllister."Murray retains lightweight title" BBC Sport
Murray's second defence of the title on 13 June 2009 against Stoke fighter Scott Lawton ended before it had even begun when Murray weighed in for the contest 2oz overweight. Despite efforts to get down to the lightweight limit, Murray was unable to shift the weight and was stripped of the belt."Murray loses time on the scales" Boxing News The contest with Lawton still went ahead and resulted in a sixth round stoppage for Murray ensuring that he was still undefeated but no longer a champion.Murray maintains unbeaten record Sporting Life As punishment for failing to make the weight in a championship contest Murray, his trainer Joe Gallagher and his manager Mike Marsden were each fined £1500 by the British Boxing Board of Control."Murray hit by £1500 fine" Manchester Evening News
Murray reclaimed the belt on 3 October 2009 after scoring a fourth round stoppage against former British and European champion Jonathon Thaxton at the Altrincham Leisure Centre.BBC Sport | Murray reclaims British title He had his fourth official British title fight on 7 May 2010 against Welsh boxer Gary Buckland this time in Widnes. The fight was also for the vacant European title and resulted in an 11th round stoppage win for Murray who was also able to keep his Lonsdale Belt for good.BBC | Murray stops Gary Buckland to win European crown Murray having won the belt outright chose to vacate in order to defend his European crown with Gavin Rees winning the vacant title against John Watson on 6 November 2010."Rees hopes for European title tilt" BBC Sport
European Champion Murray made the first defence of the European title on 25 September 2010 against the Ukrainian boxer Andriy Kudryavtsev at the Robin Park Arena in Wigan. Kudryavstev had previously fought for the title in 2009 losing to Anthony Mezaache in 12 rounds and had held a number of titles including the Ukrainian national title and the European External Union title.Andriy Kudryavstev professional record Boxrec Murray wore down his opponent to score a 9th round stoppage after a high tempo contest. Speaking after the fight Murray said that he knew the fight would be tough after watching Kudryavstev on tape and said that now he wanted to fight the top guys in the lightweight division saying he'd love a "world title shot before Christmas".Sky Sports | Solid defence for Murray Murray's next fight however was to be on 2 April 2011, traveling to London's York Hall to defend against Spanish champion Karim El Ouazghari. Both fighters were warned and deducted a point during the fight which Murray eventually won on points over the 12 round distance."Murray extends winning run" Sky Sports The fight against El Ouazghari was Murray's first since joining up with promoter Frank Warren and was described by some as a "scrappy" performance. Murray summed up by saying "It wasn't my best fight, it was like having my debut again. I have cleaned up at domestic and European level and I am looking at moving on". Warren himself said that he'd like to see a fight between Murray and Kevin Mitchell in the future saying "the fans would like to see, but the bottom line is that John is the champion and it's all about what he wants to do.""John Murray happy to face Kevin Mitchell en route to world glory" The Telegraph |
Kevin Mitchell fight Murray vacated the European belt in order to fight Kevin Mitchell who was not eligible to challenge for the title due to suffering a loss in his preceding fight with Michael Katsidis. Murray's trainer Joe Gallagher said that John should have been fighting for a world title but as the fight wasn't mandated then beating Mitchell would be a sure way of getting noticed.Trainer Talk : Joe Gallagher Boxrec Mitchell himself had said that the fight represented a "last chance saloon" for him as the fight with Katsidis had resulted in a third round stoppage. Mitchell had cited "personal problems" as having marred his preparation for that fight.BBC Sport | Mitchell admits that fight against Murray is last chance The two met at the Echo Arena in Liverpool on 16 July 2011 with Murray suffering a first career defeat via stoppage in the 8th round. Mitchell had hurt Murray in the 7th round and finally scored a knockdown in the 8th before the referee stepped in to call a halt to the fight in what was described as a "superb" contest."Kevin Mitchell stops John Murray in 8th round" BBC Sport
World title shot On 7 October 2011 it was confirmed that despite a first career defeat in his previous fight Murray would take on Brandon Rios for the WBA Lightweight title on 3 December in New York City. Murray lost the fight by TKO in 11th round. However, Ríos was overweight and was subsequently stripped of his title and had to pay Team Murray $20000 from his purse. The vacant WBA Lightweight title was only able to be won by Murray.
Professional boxing record
ResultRecordOpponentTypeRound, timeDateLocationNotes36Loss33–3 Anthony CrollaTKO10 (12), 19 Apr 2014 35Win33–2 John SimpsonTKO2 (10), 1 Mar 2014 34Win32–2 Michael EscobarTKO4 (6), 22 Nov 2013 33Loss31–2 Brandon RíosTKO11 (12), 3 Dec 2011 32Loss31–1 Kevin MitchellTKO8 (12), 16 Jul 2011 31Win31–0 Karim El OuazghariUD122 Apr 2011 30Win30–0 Andriy KudryavtsevTKO9 (12), 25 Sep 2010 29Win29–0 Gary BucklandTKO11 (12), 7 May 2010 28Win28–0 Jon ThaxtonTKO4 (12), 3 Oct 2009 27Win27–0 Scott LawtonTKO6 (12), 13 Jun 2009 26Win26–0 Lee McAllisterTKO8 (12), 17 Jan 2009 25Win25–0 Lee MeagerTKO5 (12), 11 Jul 2008 24Win24–0 Youssef Al HamidiPTS810 May 2008 23Win23–0 Miguel Angel MunguiaUD107 Dec 2007 22Win22–0 Dean HickmanTKO4 (10), 9 Nov 2007 21Win21–0 Lorenzo BetheaTKO7 (10), 5 May 2007 20Win20–0 Ben OdamatteyTKO5 (8), 20 Jan 2007 19Win19–0 Billy SmithPTS66 Oct 2006 18Win18–0 Mouibi SarounaUD1015 Sep 2006 17Win17–0 Billy SmithTKO6 (6), 12 Jul 2006 16Win16–0 Ignacio Mendoza8 (10)2 Dec 2005 15Win15–0 Tyrone WigginsKO4 (8), 29 Oct 2005 14Win14–0 Azad AzizovTKO3 (8), 23 Sep 2005 13Win13–0 Johnny Walker66 Aug 2005 12Win12–0 Mounir GuebbasPTS88 Jul 2005 11Win11–0 Karl TaylorPTS66 Mar 2005 10Win10–0 Harry RamogoadiTKO4 (4), 9 Dec 2004 9Win9–0 Daniel ThorpeTKO2 (6), 26 Nov 2004 8Win8–0 Ernie SmithPTS431 Oct 2004 7Win7–0 Dariusz SnarskiTKO2 (6)24 Sep 2004 6Win6–0 Anthony HannaPTS42 Jun 2004 5Win5–0 John Paul RyanTKO1 (4), 12 Mar 2004 4Win4–0 Norman Dhalie2 (4), 30 Jan 2004 3Win3–0 Jason NesbittPTS621 Dec 2003 2Win2–0 Matthew Burke1 (4)18 Oct 2003 1Win1–0 Peter Buckley46 Sep 2003
References