LORD OF THE RING
Gold Coast mega fight closer for heroic Murdock
GOLD Coast boxer Rohan Murdock “can’t imagine losing at the moment” after stepping up his hunt for Gilberto Ramirez’s WBO super middleweight world title.
Murdock impressed in his first professional fight on Saturday night in the US (Sunday QLD time), brushing aside Frankie Filippone in a technical knockout after the American was unable to begin the fifth of eight rounds.
The 25-year-old, who trains out of Platinum Boxing Club in Nerang, admitted he will need to raise his game in future though after making some mistakes.
The rivals traded heavy blows early before fan favourite Murdock took the upper hand in the third round and landed a series of killer hits the following round.
A pair of fourth round knockdowns forced Filippone – who looked comparatively sluggish – to dig deep just to get back on his feet and he didn’t return for a fifth dose of punishment, much to Murdock’s surprise.
“I did some silly stuff that if I did it with another opponent, I wouldn’t have got away with it,” Murdock told the Bulletin in Corpus Christi.
“I knew I could take his power and it wasn’t going to affect me. I started to load up which I shouldn’t have done but I got the win so happy with that.
“To make someone quit on the stool, that’s pretty much the best way you can win. To make them physically go “no, I don’t want any more” is what you want.” Trainer Chris Carden hailed it a good performance.
“A couple of times he got caught staying there too long instead of changing position but that’s part of the experience and why we are here so we need to make those adjustments,” he said.
Filippone was only the second southpaw Murdock has faced in 23 fights but it did not stop him improving his record to 22-1.
A title bout with Ramirez – who defeated Habib Ahmed hours after the Murdock-Filippone contest – is now in sight.
Ramirez and Murdock will fight separately on a card in Mexico in May after which, should both win again, they are likely to square off on the Gold Coast in September.
An “over the moon” Murdock declared he is now coming for Ramirez, who he studied closely against Ahmed.
“That’s the goal,” he said of upsetting the Mexican later this year. “I can’t imagine losing at the moment. I feel great … I’ll be even better by that stage.”
He added he “absolutely” has the self-belief to become the first man to defeat Ramirez when the time comes.
Much of the crowd at the American Bank Centre defied patriotism to support Murdock over Virginia’s Filippone and Carden said people were starting to realise his fighter is the real deal. “A lot of people that were inside were pretty excited and were rushing up to him straight after the bell and realising “s**t, this kid can fight” so it’s great,” Carden said.
Murdock will return home on Tuesday. Connor is travelling to the US at the expense of Rohan Murdock’s team.