Martin Murray has had an unfortunate time this year in getting big fights but he will get a chance to fight a former world champion before the end of the year.
It was announced that Murray will fight Hassan N'Dam as part of the undercard for the Josh Warrington vs. Carl Frampton fight for the IBF featherweight title. The card will take place on December 22 at the Manchester Arena in Manchester.
Murray had been trying to get in the ring to fight Billy Joe Saunders for the WBO middleweight title throughout the year, but Saunders had been injured a number of times that postponed and eventually canceled the fight altogether. The two were supposed to fight on April 14, but Saunders suffered a hand injury which would move the fight to June 23.
About seven weeks before the re-scheduled fight would take place, Saunders suffered another injury and the fight was scrapped entirely. Murray would remain on the June 23 card from the O2 Arena, defeating Roberto Garcia to win the WBC Silver middleweight title. Murray has previously challenged for either a middleweight or super middleweight world title on four different occasions, but was unsuccessful in each attempt with his last title fight taking place in 2015 when he lost a split decision to then-WBA super middleweight titleholder Arthur Abraham.
N'Dam has previously held the interim WBA and WBO middleweight titles at different points throughout his career. He would go on to win his first world title in May 2017 in controversial fashion when he won a highly disputed split decision against Ryota Murata to capture the WBA "regular" middleweight title. The two had a rematch later in 2017 with Murata picking up the victory and winning the title.
