Murray looks mint in victory over Meager by Terry Dooley Jul 13th 2008

John Murray's ring entrance for his vacant British lightweight title fight against Lee Meager, in Wigan's Robin Park Centre last night, belied the recent criticism that had settled on Murray's shoulders.  Recent off-form outings against Miguel Angel Munguia and Youssef Al Hamidi had placed Murray under the burden of proof; a win for him versus Lee Meager would repair his damaged, in the eyes of some, reputation; a destructive win, however unlikely that seemed, would serve to add to the reputation he had built with wins over Johnny Walker and, in recent times, Dean Hickman.    Prior to the fight trainer Joe Gallagher had privately told BBN that he fully expected Murray to pull off a fourth or fifth round stoppage yet he had decided not to go public with this belief for fear of seeming disrespectful to Meager.  In the event Gallagher's faith was well served as his charge hammered out a fifth round stoppage win over Salford's Meager.   As mentioned above Murray, from Ardwick, has looked somewhat off-the-boil in recent fights, his loss of form against Munguia and Hamidi could not be written off as evidence that Murray does not perform well against guys with two forenames, instead being seen by some as evidence that Murray's career had flatlined at a crucial time.    However Meager himself came into this fight under a question mark after looking like a badly faded fighter in his last fight, an eighth round draw versus Jose Gonzalez.  Murray's recent performances have been off-form, yet form is a temporary beast, often rendered wavy by personal motivation.  For a faded fighter, however, it becomes increasingly difficult to throw off the fluctuations of form and this seemed to me to be the problem faced by Meager going into a fight of this nature.  In the final analysis one man, Murray, was able to rely on his youth to shrug off recent form and the other man, Meager, was again served notice that father time had caught up with him.   A confident looking Murray, weighing in at 134.25lbs, came out to his customised version of ‘Johnny B. Goode' whereas Meager, 134.25lbs also, was more classical in his entrance music, the song ‘Nowhere to run to, baby, nowhere to hide' blasting out a warning that Lee felt his age would be a bonus, in that he had been to this level before in winning the British title against Dave Stewart in 2006.     During the introductions both men averted their gaze, only for Murray, 23, to give Lee, 30, the once over moments before they went back to their respective corners, if Lee had looked at the man across from him he may have seen a near copy of himself as a fighter, with 7 years of wear and tear removed.    The first round saw Murray landing compact blows behind a tight defence.  Meager began to move backwards in order to find room for his shots, only for Murray to find the range with a solid right hand to the head in the final 20-seconds of the round.     Both men are known to accrue facial damage during fights, Murray himself carried a little bruise under the right eye into the fight, from his sparring sessions, however it was Meager who marked-up first, and badly, during the early going.      In particular Lee's right cheekbone began to balloon under the impact of the punches he took in the second round.  A pair of hooks – right and left – from Murray set-up a left hand screw shot to the head of his opponent.  Meager got off with a stiff jab as Murray set-up his left hook, only for Murray to switch his attack in order to land a left hook to the body.  A stiffer jab from Murray prompted a pair of left hooks from Lee yet there was not the same impact on his blows.      During the final minute of the round Murray started to blitz his opponent a little.  Neither man was setting the furious pace many expected; yet Murray, even at this early stage, seemed serenely confident.     It was one of those inside fights in which those at ringside feel the impact of the punches keenly.  On TV the clubbing shots do not carry the impact, and sound, of, say, the type of rifle-shot right hand Thomas Hearns felled Roberto Duran with, yet the rhythmic thudding of Murray's punching throughout the fight caused one ringside security guard to avert his gaze on a few occasions.      Meager came out with urgency for the third, I sensed that he had decided to go out on his shield, Lee landed a solid left hook only for Murray to again retort in kind, this time with a left hook to the body and a right and left hook to the head.  Murray was now beginning to replicate the form he shows in sparring – in sessions against John Truscott, Michael Gomez, Michael Brodie and Ricky Hatton.  This was a bad sign for Meager's chances.      A right uppercut, left hook and right hand increased the problems faced by Meager by exacerbating the facial damage he was accruing, he was also cut under the left eye.  A one-two, followed by a left hook, set Meager up for a pair of hooks as Murray continued to play the role of the aggressor during the last half of the round.  Another left hook, this time off a missed one-two, allowed Murray to then slam in another right uppercut before adjusting his balance with another left hook to the head.      Meager, so brave and tough, was refusing to wilt under the pressure thus far, yet the punishment was so incessant that the fight became difficult to describe, one can only guess how difficult it must have been for Meager to actually be in there fighting it.     In the penultimate round, the fourth, Murray himself was marked-up around the tender right eye from Meager jab's, but John continued to march the older man down, one sensed that everything Lee did, and tried to do, in this round was part of a defiant final stand in a career that has reached its end.    However a final stand can only continue for so long, Murray dominated the early going in the fifth round, a pair of hooks to the head were followed by a reversed one-two, right and left, with the right a screwed shot that pierced the guard of Meager.  A left uppercut to the head set up a left hook to the body that punctuated the mid-way point of the round.      Despite the absence of a knockdown the fight had been painfully one-sided and there was a feeling that someone, either referee Howard Foster or trainer Robert McCracken, would have to step in for Lee's own good.      The final assault was started by a jab and right hand to the head, a left uppercut to the head was then followed by a left and right hand to the body of Meager, who was now trapped against the ropes, Lee, to his credit, moved off the ropes and threw a right hand only for Murray to slip it and land a left hook cum uppercut to the head.      Referee Foster, and, it seemed, trainer McCracken, were on the verge of stopping the fight only for Murray to force the hand of Foster by landing two more lefts to the head of Meager, both of them saw Murray pivoting his body weight into the shot, they were solid shots and it is a credit to Lee that he did not go down under one of them.  Forster did the right thing at 2:20 of the fifth to earn Murray the British title he had craved for so long.     Murray celebrated wildly with trainer Joe Gallagher before being congratulated by nutritionist Kerry Kayes and cutsman Mick Williams.     Claims that Meager was finished prior to this fight had been balanced by the number of people picking him to show that Murray had reached his level in boxing, those who went for Meager must give Murray his dues, the hard-fought war many expected had not taken place, instead it was a one-sided destruction of a man many felt would take Murray into deep waters.   Stylistically the young fighter with a tight style who had seemed set for big things a few years ago replaced the lethargic Murray we had seen in recent times.  Murray's head movement is never going to be dynamic, that type of rapid head movement is a reflexive gift, albeit a gift that loses it lustre as the fighter grows in age.  Instead Murray moves his head at just the right time, keeping his guard tucked in tight when on form, and he also exhibits the fading art of blocking and parrying shots with the gloves.  As long as he keeps working on that aspect of his game he can forgo the, sometimes forced and repetitive, head movement adopted by many young fighters.      When it comes to the thorny issue of upper body movement I take the lead from Stevie Wonder.  If the upper body is upright it will be all right as long as your guard is tight and it does not block your lines of sight.     Murray rises to 25-0 (13) and it seems that with this being Meager's final fight (see the accompanying Wigan interviews article for confirmation of this) his final record will rest at 21-3-2 (8). Photos: Knockout Images

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One Way Traffic Jul 13th 2008, 05:24:11 by geoff_r Terry as a always a good read...for me, perched on the edge of the ring, I felt John Murray was electric....he seemed to just brush aside anything Lee thru at him and do a real job on him. I had a chat with Jim Watt after, who always tells it as it is, and he was very impressed with Murray's performance....I guess Murray should get a shot at Amir Khan but somehow I dont think Frank will want that to happen... best