Beautiful Brutality: Why Martin Murray Will Beat Gabriel Rosado

Martin Murray returns to the middleweight division on April 22nd when he faces veteran Gabriel Rosado at the Liverpool Echo Arena in England.

Moving Down

After three failed tries at the middleweight title which culminated in an 11th round TKO loss to Gennady Golovkin in February of 2015, Martin Murray has since campaigned at super middleweight. There, Murray won five of seven bouts but lost another title shot against Arthur Abraham in November of 2015. Another loss to countryman George Groves last June may have made Murray think twice about staying at Super Middleweight. Two fights later, he goes down to 160 pounds once again to face an opponent who, like him, has tried but failed to win a world title in his decorated career.

An Uphill Battle

Gabriel Rosado was a 21-5 up and coming contender when he was stopped by Gennady Golovkin in his first attempt at a world title back in 2013. Since then, it’s been an uphill battle for the Pennsylvania native. Rosado has won only twice since, losing four times and earning one no-contest over the period. To his credit, though, Rosado fought top some notch competition lately: Peter Quillin, Jermell Charlo, David Lemieux, Joshua Clottey and Willie Monroe Jr. With the losses piling up, Rosado needs to rebound quickly or else his career could be ending pretty soon. Facing Murray is a big challenge but it will also be a huge reward bout if Rosado wins. If you ask Rosado, there isn’t any doubt that he will.

The Odds

Murray is currently a -350 against Rosado’s +265. And while this bout is going to be competitive, brutal and bloody, we’re going with Martin Murray here. Sure, he’s always been exciting to watch with his brawling style but Rosado has been struggling in the last couple of years. With two wins in his last seven fights, he appears to be on the way down. Murray meanwhile has won five of seven bouts since the Golovkin loss. Four of those wins were by KO and his losses were to Arthur Abraham and George Groves. This fight’s in England and Murray’s only loss in his home country has been against Groves.

Murray’s weakness was his lack of power but with four KO wins in seven super middleweight fights he’s proven otherwise. Murray’s rugged style is a bad match-up for Rosado and if he’s expecting a Gatti-Ward style war, he’s not going to win this at all. Murray is one of the sport’s toughest competitors. This could end in a stoppage with the brutality expected but if this one’s going to get stopped, it will be in Murray’s favor. I can’t see Rosado winning on points either with Murray being the better all-around fighter between the two. We’re picking Martin Murray to beat Gabriel Rosado.