MARTIN MURRAY has had a colourful past. He reckons he must be the only person to have won the ABA national championships while on the run from the police.
In that same period as an amateur he also boxed Danny Jacobs twice. “I was on the run on the police then,” Murray recalled. “Just stupid fights and stuff like that. That was a long time ago. I turned pro in 2007… I could have done more as an amateur.”
“I fought him [Jacobs] the week before in London. I got beat 19-17, a close fight. Then Neil Perkins was meant to be fighting him the week after in Liverpool. He broke his hand and they said, ‘Do you want a fight?’ Obviously I didn’t train properly for that week and ended up fighting. All I remember is him pinging me everywhere, ping, ping, ping. He was a lot sharper but I was a lot more sluggish from the first fight. I just remember swinging bombs. I put him down in the third. I dropped him in the third and I was thinking, ‘Stay down.’ He just stood up, shook his head and said not today and went on and won,” Murray continued.
“I wasn’t wanted for anything that serious but I knew when I got arrested I was going to jail. I’d say I was the only person to win the ABAs while on the run, I don’t know. Breaking all sorts of records today!”
