MY Olympic teammate Billy Joe Saunders has just pulled out of his scheduled fight with Martin Murray. Saunders is out due to a hamstring injury. BJS now 28 years old holds a 26-0 career record with 12 knockouts. The fight with Murray was scheduled for June 23 at the O2 Arena in London.
The rumours are he has bigger opportunities to fight Canelo Alvarez or Gennady Golovkin and he would probably make five times more money, which I really hope he gets as I fancy him against both of them.
In boxing you got to make as much money as you can in the career which for most is very hard to do. I do feel sorry for Martin Murray because he has been in that training camp for such a long time. I know those training camps can be a beast. If you are not familiar, for example, I would fly to America for eight weeks: would stay in a hotel, have good food, recovery tools and it all costs money. You might be paying your trainers, strength and conditioning coaches, etc. Then when the fight gets called off you are not making any money.
It happened to me one time when I had a training camp for eight weeks in LA. I had a cut over my eye that kept reopening, due to scar tissue, and had to have surgery on it. I spent about $6,000 on the training camp with the flight and the accommodations, etc, and then missed my $30,000 fight purse. So, I have sympathy and compassion for poor Martin Murray and what he has gone through.
He has dedicated his life to this and had to make sacrifices, Missing fights after training camps is hard not only financially, but how you put your body through all that hard work, wear and tear, not seeing your family, missing social events, etc. You are running, dieting, losing weight, and of course in boxing all that adds up. I feel sorry for Martin Murray and any fighter who has to go through a training camp, like that, and then not get a fight at the end. In boxing, 99% of the time, you only get paid when you fight.
Listen to me talk about this and more on my latest podcast here on Youtube:
