Headbutt win over Spada puts middleweight man back in the mix
Sunday 26 October 2014 07:01, UK
Martin Murray looks to have earned a shot at middleweight supremo Gennady Golovkin.
The St Helens fighter stopped Dominic Spada in Monte Carlo thanks to a technical decision that gave him the WBC Silver middleweight title.
Golovkin is the WBA champion but Murray already appears to be heading towards his third world title attempt on the back of a strange success.
He was well ahead on the cards before the seventh round when the referee Daniel Van de Wiele stepped in and stopped it due to a bad cut suffered by Spada.
It had happened much earlier in the fight, through what he said was a headbutt from Murray, but the cut worsened as the fight wore on - and eventually forced it to be halted halfway through the seventh.
Murray (29-1-1, 12 KOs) was deducted a point for it but was still ahead on the judge's scorecards - 67-66, 68-63, 69-67 - and he has already been lined up for a return to the principality next year for arguably the biggest fight of his career.
He has lost two world middleweight attempts in the last three years, a narrow points loss to Sergio Martinez and a controversial draw with Felix Sturm, and could be the 10th fighter to try and dethrone Golovkin (31-0, 28 KOs).
