British Scene: John Murray vs Andrei Kudriavtsev Preview

Andrew Harrison previews Saturday night's European Lightweight title clash between John Murray and Andrei Kudriavtsev.  For more from Andrew, make sure to check out his blog, Safe Side of the Ropes.

Manchester action man John Murray returns to the ring on Saturday evening looking to take care of one last spot of business on the European circuit before taking aim at the world’s best lightweights. The opponent, veteran Andrei Kudriavtsev, is a well schooled technician from the former Eastern Bloc, a two time national champion and a home bird by nature.

After inauspicious beginnings which returned five defeats from his initial nine outings as a novice, Kudriavtsev went unbeaten through five years and twenty contests, a run which carried him to a showdown against the unbeaten Paulus Moses. Despite an admirable showing, Moses (who would later grab an alphabet belt) proved to be a bridge too far and halted Kudriavtsev in nine, yet it took an extremely determined shift from the Namibian to derail the man from the Kerch Peninsula.

Here, Kudriavtsev makes only his third business trip outside of Eastern Europe after splitting a pair of distance fights with Frenchman Anthony Mezaache on his previous road trips. Although a competent craftsman, Kudriavtsev falls into the solid if unspectacular category of fighter, which you imagine won’t quite be enough to see him home against the improving Murray.

The threshing machine from Levenshulme, now in his prime, will understand that an impressive performance is paramount here if he is to have any hope of landing a marquee date with either lightweight boss Juan Manuel Marquez or his impending challenger Michael Katsidis. In order to secure more realistic opposition, such as Mexican alphabet titlists Humberto Soto and Miguel Vazquez or perhaps the Venezuelan Miguel Acosta, Murray needs to project himself as an attraction.

Kudriavtsev likes to hold centre ring and move side to side from behind a high and tight guard before looking to apply steady pressure upon his opponent. Murray can find success with his patented body attack and especially with his high quality uppercutting, the very weapon which precipitated the tumbling of Kudriavtsev’s dominoes against Moses.

The pair will more than likely meet each other in mid ring where Kudriavtsev’s strategy of blocking before counter punching will soon begin to lose fizz as he finds his defences whittled away by the sheer volume of leather thrown in his direction. Murray is a relentless foe who wears opponents down with his constant and debilitating attacking as evidenced in his last outing where he halted the courageous Welshman Gary Buckland in the eleventh round of a frenetic fight.

Kudriavtsev, 34-7 (15) isn’t given a chance by oddsmakers with only the nature of his demise offering punters any hope of a return. I’d imagine there’ll be a lot of money laid on the British and European champion Murray, 29-0 (17) to finish the job in the second half of the contest, however, he could be made to settle for a unanimous decision victory by a game opponent who’ll come to fight without ever threatening to win.

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