The bravest and most lonely British sportsman in action this weekend will be Martin Murray, three-times guest of Her Majesty and aspiring world middleweight champion.
On Saturday night at the Velez Sarsfield football stadium he will walk out, an Englishman, to face Argentinian national hero Sergio Martinez, watched by a febrile crowd of 40,000 which will, he estimates, include around 40 of his own supporters from St Helens.
This will surely be the biggest challenge of his life, contesting the WBC crown against a man who, although he may be fraying a little at 38, is still reckoned to be among the best pound-for-pound fighters on earth.
Not necessarily so, maintains 30 year-old Murray when we meet at his downtown hotel. It will be his toughest fight between the ropes, but he has already won a more profound battle, that of turning his life round after three spells in prison.
He has, indeed, come a very long way from his last time spend behind bars, in 2006, since building up an unbeaten record in 26 fights as a professional and earning the shot at Martinez as the former Commonwealth champion.Murray is now a qualified youth worker who draws on his own experiences when he works with youngsters under threat of taking the path that he initially did, telling them of how boxing showed the way to redemption.
'It’s like a different life when I look back on it now, I’m a completely different person, but maybe what I’ve gone through will help me against Martinez,' says Murray, whose fists used to bring him only trouble.
'I was never a bad lad, I just got caught up doing stupid things while I was trying to find myself in life. After I had been inside for a second time (due to an incident in a chip shop) I was determined never to go back, but then I got involved in something with a doorman in Preston.
'I got a bit lucky with the judge and was only given two months, and it was during that time that I told myself that I really had to sort myself out, or I was going to spend the rest of my life in and out of prison.'
So when he got out he went to the gym in Wigan of amateur boxing legend John Lyon, declaring his ambition to properly make it as a professional after a sporadically successful amateur career.
'The important thing was that I was finally in the right frame of mind to do it. I had met my now wife (Gemma, with whom he has three children) and knew I wanted to achieve things. I trained hard there every day for a year, met more and more good people and got better and better.
'Having the family has made more focused. I like to pass on to kids I work with about how it is important to make the right choices and how boxing got my life on track. I don’t want to set myself up as a role model to anybody, but if I can make a difference it’s worth it. One day I see that as my full time profession.'
Now, under promoter Ricky Hatton, he finds himself on the other side of the world, preparing for a fight in which he is very much second favourite, but not hopelessly so.
Since arriving early last week Murray has spurned the city’s gyms in favour of light workouts in his hotel’s empty conference rooms. Every night at ten o’ clock he goes out onto the tennis court to familiarise himself with what it will be like in the early autumn evening temperatures.
He also went to Velez Sarsfield’s home match last weekend to sample what it might be like. 'I will be completely ready for this, Of course I’ll be nervous but the atmosphere won’t bother me. I know I’ve got a great chance, whatever anyone else says. I’m a versatile fighter and I know that whatever he brings I am ready to answer it.'
Source: DSG
