Murray favourite but should he be? by The Judge Jul 10th 2008

It's being billed as the domestic fight of the year and Friday's British lightweight title fight does look like a 50/50 fight on paper, but the bookies are making John Murray an odds on favourite to claim the Lonsdale belt that Jon Thaxton has vacated to challenge for the European title. Murray is untried at the twelve round distance whereas Meager has been there and done that and has the t-shirt as a former British champion, many believe Murray has been built up and is all hype, well tomorrow we may go some way to finding out if that is true or not. He certainly was poor last time out but can probably be forgiven for that performance due to John Fewkes pulling out and then no opponent being found until the unorthdox Youssef Al Hamidi was brought in. Murray seems to need a good opponent in front of him to show his best form, he blasted Dean Hickman out of there in his first challenge for the English title. Meager himself has probably faced the better opponents in Dave Stewart, who he beat to take the British title, Danny Hunt for the English title, a fight many felt Meager won and Jon Thaxton who he gave a good tussle before the Norwich puncher came away with the belt in an entertaining bout. And what of the trainers, Robert McCracken has obviously been there as both a trainer and a boxer winning the British title and also guiding the careers of Howard Eastman and Carl Froch whereas Joe Gallagher is an up and coming trainer who guides the careers of both of the Murray brothers. A defeat for Murray will not be the end of his career at only 23 he will be able to bounce back from losing the unbeaten tag, but can Meager, is this his last chance to move onwards and upwards and keep himself in the lightweight mix. Motiviation will surely pay a key in the fight as well. Meager could well take Murray to a place he has never been before, but the Salford Man also marks up so that could prove a problem for him. Former champion Thaxton thinks that it will be Murray who prevails and he would definately like to face who ever wins in order to try and gain the Lonsdale belt outright, he feels a stoppage win for Murray would be a very good win for the youngster. I'm going to stick my money on rounds 9 to 12 for a Murray stoppage maybe on cuts after he breaks the heart of Meager, and maybe a bit on a points win for Murray but at odds on for a points win there's not much value, maybe the draw is worth a little punt at 25/1. You don't see many poor bookies afterall

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