British Boxing Prospects John Murray And John O’Donnell Find Mixed Results In Vegas

Much was made of the fact that Hennessy Sports prospects John Murray and John O’Donnell were going to fight on the undercard of what turned out to be Floyd Mayweather’s victory over Oscar De La Hoya last night at the MGM in Las Vegas.

And rightly so; these were very high profile slots on the biggest showdown in boxing since at least the De La Hoya clash with Bernard Hopkins in 2004 and a real coup for Murray and O’Donnell’s promoter, Hennessy Sports, in regard to their standing in the British boxing business.

But putting in two top prospects in on a Las Vegas fight card carries certain risks.

Lightweight John Murray, 21-0 (11), faced Atlantic City’s Lorenzo Bethea, 6-5 (1). Bethea was the larger man, a light welter by trade, and the fight was made at 139 lb but Murray outboxed his foe and stopped the American at 0:28 of the seventh round in a scheduled eight round contest.

It was a good experience building bout for the 22 year old from Manchester, who will no doubt be angling to face the winner of the upcoming Willie Limond vs. Amir Khan bout for the Commonwealth title in July.

Welterweight John O’Donnell, 15-1 (5), was put in tougher than Murray as the tall southpaw from South London drew a more experienced foe in Mexico’s Christiano Solano, 20-11-4 (15).

At 5’11, O’Donnell is a tall welterweight and the Croydon man had previously towered over his opponents back in the UK, most of whom, aside from previously unbeaten Stuart Ewell, had possessed humble won – lost records, as is common practice to feed prospects the world over.

But Solano was a far different kettle of fish, standing 6’1 and representing the tallest opponent by far that O’Donnell had ever faced. While Solano had been stopped in six of his eleven losses, each opponent that had achieved that result was a quality Mexican fighter with a high knockout percentage.

Solano had never beaten a name fighter but he certainly knew his way around a ring and had gone ten rounds with rising Mexican welterweight contender Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., in his previous outing.

In short, it was a fight that, given his evident skill and tremendous potential, O’Donnell should have won but nothing is certain in boxing, particularly when facing a tough Mexican fighter for the first time.

In the bout, O’Donnell was caught with a Solano left hook in the first round and dropped to the canvas. The Englishman beat the count and got through the initial frame but was floored hard in the second by the same punch and the bout was stopped.

One of the cliches in boxing is that a fighter learns more from a loss than a victory and it will be interesting to see how this Las Vegas experience shapes these two British prospects in the future.