John Murray gunning for Amir Khan

A match between Amir Khan and John Murray would seem a natural. They are both lightweights, young, unbeaten and from Lancashire. Murray also followed Khan (two years after) as young Boxer of the Year and Murray's younger brother Joe - who will be boxing for Great Britain at the Olympics in Beijing - even used to room with Khan during England team trips.
But while Murray, 23, has already boxed twice in Las Vegas, including on the undercard of the De La Hoya-Mayweather bill last year (he has also boxed in Florida and Canada), Khan remains by far the biggest star. So,although Murray is just over a week away from facing Lee Meager for the vacant British lightweight title, he has Khan in his sights.

"I would love to fight Amir and it’s the logical fight to happen," Murray said. "He's talking about fighting for the world title, but he's not even the best in Lancashire. It would be a massive fight for Greater Manchester and also for the whole country."

Murray, who has won all his 24 bouts, faces Meager at the Robin Park Arena, Wigan, on July 11 and Murray will have his hands full. Khan will go for his nineteenth win at the MEN Arena, Manchester, on September 6 - a bill he co-headlines with Alex Arthur facing the first defence of his WBO super-featherweight title. By then Arthur may be Britain's only world champion.

Arthur and Khan, 21, are due to have their opponents announced on Thursday (despite some ridiculous rumours, they are not boxing each other). And despite Murray's wishes, he will not be the opponent either.

“I wasn’t really impressed with him against Michael Gomez the other week," Murray said. "Gomez will probably tell you himself he is past his best but he still gave Amir lots of trouble. Khan should be taking care of people better than he has done. This fight with Lee is an excellent opportunity for me to move my career on, especially as it could lead to a fight with Amir.”

Comments

[Danny McCann]

Amir Khan may become a world champion one day,but its a very very long way off. Frank warren now knows he's chinny he has been exposed by hand picked journey men. Mr Warren will avoid John Murray like the plague,because he's the real deal.

[Nik Wheatley]

I would love to see this but can't imagine either promoter genuinely fancies it. Murray looked shocking last time out and I think we are going to see a continued risk management strategy with Khan until they are confident that he knows how to keep his gloves up. Not sure where that leaves either really as they are probably above domestic level without really being world level.