John Murray (boxer)
# John Murray (boxer)

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.

## 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.

### British Champion

Following the Hickman victory, Murray fought twice more against journeyman opponents before meeting [[Salford, 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'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. 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. 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 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. 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. 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.

### 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. 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". 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. 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."

### 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. 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. 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.

### 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

| 36 fights | 33 wins | 3 losses |
| - | - | - |
| By knockout | 20 | 3 |
| By decision | 13 | 0 |
| No. | Result | Record | Opponent | Type | Round, time | Date | Location | Notes |
| 36 | Loss | 33–3 | Anthony Crolla | TKO | 10 (12), 2:20 | 19 Apr 2014 | Manchester Arena, Manchester, England | For WBO Inter-Continental lightweight title |
| 35 | Win | 33–2 | John Simpson | TKO | 2 (10), 2:58 | 1 Mar 2014 | Exhibition and Conference Centre, Glasgow, Scotland | |
| 34 | Win | 32–2 | Michael Escobar | TKO | 4 (6), 1:43 | 22 Nov 2013 | Bowlers Exhibition Centre, Manchester, England | |
| 33 | Loss | 31–2 | Brandon Ríos | TKO | 11 (12), 2:06 | 3 Dec 2011 | Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, US | For vacant WBA lightweight title |
| 32 | Loss | 31–1 | Kevin Mitchell | TKO | 8 (12), 1:46 | 16 Jul 2011 | Echo Arena, Liverpool, England | For vacant WBO Inter-Continental lightweight title |
| 31 | Win | 31–0 | Karim El Ouazghari | UD | 12 | 2 Apr 2011 | York Hall, London, England | Retained European lightweight title |
| 30 | Win | 30–0 | Andriy Kudryavtsev | TKO | 9 (12), 2:39 | 25 Sep 2010 | Robin Park Arena, Wigan, England | Retained European lightweight title |
| 29 | Win | 29–0 | Gary Buckland | TKO | 11 (12), 1:46 | 7 May 2010 | Kingsway Leisure Centre, Widnes, England | Retained British lightweight title; Won vacant European lightweight title |
| 28 | Win | 28–0 | Jon Thaxton | TKO | 4 (12), 2:30 | 3 Oct 2009 | Leisure Centre, Altrincham, England | Won vacant British lightweight title |
| 27 | Win | 27–0 | Scott Lawton | TKO | 6 (12), 1:50 | 13 Jun 2009 | Robin Park Arena, Wigan, England | |
| 26 | Win | 26–0 | Lee McAllister | TKO | 8 (12), 1:00 | 17 Jan 2009 | Robin Park Arena, Wigan, England | Retained British lightweight title |
| 25 | Win | 25–0 | Lee Meager | TKO | 5 (12), 2:20 | 11 Jul 2008 | Robin Park Arena, Wigan, England | Won vacant British lightweight title |
| 24 | Win | 24–0 | Youssef Al Hamidi | PTS | 8 | 10 May 2008 | Nottingham Arena, Nottingham, England | |
| 23 | Win | 23–0 | Miguel Angel Munguia | UD | 10 | 7 Dec 2007 | MGM Grand Garden Arena, Paradise, Nevada, US | |
| 22 | Win | 22–0 | Dean Hickman | TKO | 4 (10), 2:50 | 9 Nov 2007 | Ice Centre, Nottingham, England | Won vacant English lightweight title |
| 21 | Win | 21–0 | Lorenzo Bethea | TKO | 7 (10), 0:28 | 5 May 2007 | MGM Grand Garden Arena, Paradise, Nevada, US | |
| 20 | Win | 20–0 | Ben Odamattey | TKO | 5 (8), 2:33 | 20 Jan 2007 | Alexandra Palace, London, England | |
| 19 | Win | 19–0 | Billy Smith | PTS | 6 | 6 Oct 2006 | Goresbrook Lesiure Centre, London, England | |
| 18 | Win | 18–0 | Mouibi Sarouna | UD | 10 | 15 Sep 2006 | Alexandra Palace, London, England | Retained WBC Youth lightweight title |
| 17 | Win | 17–0 | Billy Smith | TKO | 6 (6), 1:36 | 12 Jul 2006 | York Hall, London, England | |
| 16 | Win | 16–0 | Ignacio Mendoza | TD | 8 (10) | 2 Dec 2005 | Ice Centre, Nottingham, England | Won vacant WBC Youth lightweight title; Unanimous TD after Murray could not continue due to forehead swelling |
| 15 | Win | 15–0 | Tyrone Wiggins | KO | 4 (8), 2:43 | 29 Oct 2005 | Casino du Lac-Leamy, Gatineau, Quebec, Canada | |
| 14 | Win | 14–0 | Azad Azizov | TKO | 3 (8), 1:54 | 23 Sep 2005 | George H Carnall Leisure Centre, Trafford, England | |
| 13 | Win | 13–0 | Johnny Walker | UD | 6 | 6 Aug 2005 | St. Pete Times Forum, Tampa, Florida, US | |
| 12 | Win | 12–0 | Mounir Guebbas | PTS | 8 | 8 Jul 2005 | Leisure Centre, Altrincham, England | |
| 11 | Win | 11–0 | Karl Taylor | PTS | 6 | 6 Mar 2005 | Tara Leisure Centre, Shaw, England | |
| 10 | Win | 10–0 | Harry Ramogoadi | TKO | 4 (4), 2:02 | 9 Dec 2004 | Acton Court Hotel, Stockport, England | |
| 9 | Win | 9–0 | Daniel Thorpe | TKO | 2 (6), 2:36 | 26 Nov 2004 | Leisure Centre, Altrincham, England | |
| 8 | Win | 8–0 | Ernie Smith | PTS | 4 | 31 Oct 2004 | Tara Leisure Centre, Shaw, England | |
| 7 | Win | 7–0 | Dariusz Snarski | TKO | 2 (6) | 24 Sep 2004 | Ice Cenre, Nottingham, England | |
| 6 | Win | 6–0 | Anthony Hanna | PTS | 4 | 2 Jun 2004 | Ice Centre, Nottingham, England | |
| 5 | Win | 5–0 | John Paul Ryan | TKO | 1 (4), 2:05 | 12 Mar 2004 | Ice Centre, Nottingham, England | |
| 4 | Win | 4–0 | Norman Dhalie | TKO | 2 (4), 2:37 | 30 Jan 2004 | Goresbrook Leisure Centre, London, England | |
| 3 | Win | 3–0 | Jason Nesbitt | PTS | 6 | 21 Dec 2003 | Reebok Stadium, Bolton, England | |
| 2 | Win | 2–0 | Matthew Burke | KO | 1 (4) | 18 Oct 2003 | MEN Arena, Manchester, England | |
| 1 | Win | 1–0 | Peter Buckley | PTS | 4 | 6 Sep 2003 | Leisure Centre, Huddersfield, England | Professional debut |
