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Murray: Age not an advantage

Martin Murray believes fighting in front of a partisan crowd will not faze him © Getty Images

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British middleweight Martin Murray believes that age will not be a factor in his WBC middleweight title fight with Sergio Martinez in Buenos Aires on April 27.

Despite being eight years younger than champion Martinez, the St Helens fighter insists he is not using age as an advantage and is preparing to face the 'best' the Argentine can offer.

"You could look at that and say I am eight years younger than him, but on the other side you could say he's got more experience than me," Murray told ESPN.com. "I am not going into that fight thinking that I am younger and I have an advantage on him. I am going to prepare myself for the best Sergio Martinez that he can be.

"That's what we'll see on the day of the fight, because I know he's going to want to put on a good show. I am expecting him at his best."

Reigning Commonwealth champion Murray, unbeaten in 25 professional bouts, has great respect for Martinez and knows that the Buenos Aires-born fighter will draw on a wealth of experience when fighting in front of a home crowd.

"You can't buy experience," Murray said. "Sergio has fought all over the world, fought many times for the world title, and he has been in the elite class for years and years now, so you can't just learn that type of experience. So I think this is the biggest thing that I have against me in this fight.

"He [Martinez] is very respectful to everybody, very much like myself. But it changes when you fight. You want to get in there and you want to get the job done."

The bout takes place at the Velez Sarsfield stadium, which boasts a capacity of 50,000, and former Prizefighter champion Murray is excited to step into the ring in front of a bumper crowd.

"The most I've done is about 15,000," Murray added. "So I never had the pleasure of fighting in a [soccer] stadium in front of so many spectators, so it's going to be a new experience for me, but an experience I'm looking forward to.

"Just to fight as the world's No. 1 contender, and fighting an Argentine in a great country like Argentina and being a massive underdog, it means a lot to me. It's as big as it gets for me, and I am surely looking forward to it."

Murray has only fought outside of England once, when his WBA super-middleweight title fight with champion Felix Sturm controversially ended in a draw. However, Murray insists that fighting in front of a partisan crowd will not faze him.

"Speaking for myself, it's not going to be any problem for me. The only person that I hear when I fight is my trainer in the corner. It won't affect me.

"I can't speak for Sergio, but there's going to be a lot of Argentines there watching and he's going to want to put on a great performance. I can't really comment, but I suppose you could say there is an added bit of pressure for him.

"I know I am going to go there and win. Me and my team are going to go to Argentina and on April 27 we're going to shock the world and we're going to take that WBC belt back home with us."

The content of this article first appeared on ESPN.com

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