Angry Martin Murray condemns Billy Joe Saunders as ‘an embarrassment to the sport’

martin murray

ITโ€™S not often that Martin Murray gets angry. But he is now furious. He was due to challenge WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders but for the second time Saunders has pulled out of the contest.

The champion incurred further ire from Murray when Saunders posted a video on Instagram daring Martin to face him at the Tyson Fury fight on Saturday in Manchester and risk being levelled.

โ€œHeโ€™s got no respect for anybody. Heโ€™s just got no class about him,โ€ Murray told Boxing News. โ€œHeโ€™s done a post on Instagram, offered me a straightener at Tyson Furyโ€™s fight on Saturday in Manchester. First of all, how old is he? Second of all, he couldnโ€™t fight me because heโ€™s injured but now he wants a straightener.

โ€œWe were meant to be having a proper fight for money in two weeks, but he couldnโ€™t because heโ€™s injured. But instead he wants a straightener next Saturday and heโ€™s okay to do that. Heโ€™s not injured to do that but heโ€™s injured to fight for his world title belt. The thing is with him he doesnโ€™t want to lose his belt because he knows Iโ€™ve got his number. Heโ€™s never fought anybody like me.โ€

โ€œHeโ€™s a f****** s***house. Thatโ€™s all I can say about him,โ€ Murray declared. โ€œHe canโ€™t intimidate me. Heโ€™s a f****** idiot. The fightโ€™s gone now, itโ€™s never going to happen. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Thereโ€™s no way Iโ€™d ever fall for it a third time. Heโ€™s still giving it the big โ€˜un now. Heโ€™s just an embarrassment, an embarrassment to the sport and just a horrible little creature.โ€

Murray has lost on his payday after being forced to abandon two training camps. โ€œIt cost money, two training camps abroad. It cost money, thereโ€™s everything that comes with it. Thereโ€™s money it cost me potentially in sponsorships and stuff like that. Thereโ€™s money thatโ€™s cost you where youโ€™ve put stuff on hold because youโ€™ve been doing these training camps. Iโ€™ve been training the first half of this year. Iโ€™ve got f*** all from it,โ€ he said.

โ€œBut you know what, thatโ€™s only money at the end of the day,โ€ Murray continued. โ€œI spend every single day with my kids, the fact that I left them for โ€ฆ four weeks in total to do training camps, the fact that Iโ€™ve left them for so long, kills me. You canโ€™t put a price on that. You cannot put a price on that.

โ€œMoneyโ€™s just money. Itโ€™s the precious time that you canโ€™t get back and thatโ€™s the time that Iโ€™ve spent away from my family.โ€

He doesnโ€™t however believe that Saunders called off their fight in order get a middleweight unification with Gennady Golovkin. โ€œI know heโ€™s world champion now and heโ€™s more experienced but I think if you want challenges and you want tests I think by nature youโ€™ll take them whenever. He didnโ€™t fancy it then and heโ€™s doesnโ€™t fancy it now. I donโ€™t think the fight will ever happen,โ€ Murray said. โ€œI donโ€™t even think he can make middleweight. It wouldnโ€™t surprise me if he did super-middleweight in his next fight.โ€

martin murray

Murray is still prepared to box at the O2 later this month. โ€œIโ€™m still ready to fight June 23. Iโ€™ve just got to take whatever comes,โ€ he says. And if Saunders wonโ€™t put his WBO crown on the line, he thinks he deserves at least an โ€˜Interimโ€™ title fight. โ€œI think thatโ€™d be, I suppose, kind of a compensation. The fact that Iโ€™ve had two sanctioned WBO world title fights and both of them getting pulled,โ€ Murray said.

โ€œYouโ€™d think that would be a decent thing to do. [But] Iโ€™m not expecting it now.โ€

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