By Jonny Stapleton

Matthew Macklin is a failed world level fighter on his way out according to Martin Murray.

The English middleweight was in Belfast last weekend watching Eamonn O’Kane announce himself as a future 160 pound threat with an impressive all Irish Prizefighter victory.

Whilst in the current capital of Irish boxing Murray took time to reiterated his dislike for Macklin and his desire to fight the Irish contender.

Murray hits out at Macklin while in Belfast

Murray was also keen to reignite the war of words between the former middleweight world title challengers by declaring his lack of respect for the former European champion.

The St Helens native stressed Macklin’s defeats to Felix Sturm and Sergio Martinez prove the Tipperary Tornado hasn’t got what it takes to be destructive at the highest level and feels there is an air of desperation surrounding how the Irish middleweight called him out.

“To be honest, I don’t think Macklin has anywhere to go now. He’s had two tries at world level and got exposed against Martinez. For 12 months, he’s been saying “Who’s Martin Murray? He’s not at my level, he’s not fought anyone” – now, all of a sudden, he’s shouting me out,” Murray said in the Kings Hall last weekend.

“I think it would be a great fight because Macklin’s a good fighter, it’s going to be a good fight but I’ve always been confident of winning it. I’m confident and only going to get better as a fighter and Macklin’s on his way out. I’ve not even hit my prime yet and
there’s plenty more to come.I don’t respect him, no. I don’t respect him at all, I don’t respect the person he is… I think he’s a fighter, he’s a good fighter and will go and fight anybody. He’s a fighter, but if you ask most fighters that’s what they’ll do. But as person, I don’t respect him, I don’t like him – he’s the one who started slagging me off first and I don’t like him.”

Murray indicated the feuding pairs teams have made contact and he is hopeful a deal can be made soon.

“It’s a fight I’m definitely interested in, I’ve been after it for a while. He’s started piping off now because he’s got nowhere to go. I hope my team can make the fight. I do believe my team has approached them [Macklin’s team] but I leave it all up to them. I don’t know how
far down the line they are with it but I think it’s a fight that we both want and people want to see. I think we’ve both got styles that would make a good fight, it makes sense.”