Ike Quartey vs Andrew Murray

Ghana’s Ike Quartey retained his WBA world welterweight championship with a fourth-round stoppage of Guyana’s Andrew Murray at La Palestre in Le Cannet, France, on 23 August 1995. It was Quartey’s third successful defence of the championship he had taken from Crisanto España the previous year, and it continued a run in which the Ghanaian was establishing himself as one of the strongest and hardest-punching welterweights of the period. Murray came into the fight with an 18-2 record.

Murray was no mere convenient challenger. The Guyanese welterweight had recovered from two early defeats against Pascal David to put together a lengthy winning sequence and had won the vacant Commonwealth championship in October 1993 by stopping Tony Swift in six rounds. He subsequently added the WBA Fedelatin title and arrived in France having rebuilt his career sufficiently to earn his first challenge for a full world championship. Murray had won 16 consecutive fights after his early reverses.

Quartey nevertheless represented a considerable rise in standard. The Ghanaian had won the WBA title from España in June 1994 with an eleventh-round stoppage and had already defended it by halting Alberto Cortes in five rounds and Jung-Oh Park in four. His method was comparatively uncomplicated but highly effective: a compact orthodox stance, physical strength at welterweight and, above all, the heavy left jab that became the foundation of his work. By the time Murray challenged him, Quartey had developed the habit of establishing command without wasting punches and then increasing the pressure once an opponent began to lose ground. His preceding two championship defences had both ended inside five rounds.

The champion was dominant through the early rounds, with the judges' scores providing evidence of that: Renato Caddeo 30-26 Jesus Cova 30-27 Rogelio Perez 30-26. Murray was unable to extend the champion beyond the fourth. The challenger had shown sufficient durability and ability in winning Commonwealth and regional honours, but against Quartey he encountered a fighter approaching his prime and carrying considerably more authority at world level. Quartey forced the stoppage during the fourth round, successfully defending the WBA welterweight championship for the third time.

The victory strengthened Quartey’s position in a welterweight division that would become increasingly prominent during the second half of the decade. He next made another successful defence in April 1996, stopping the dangerous Vince Phillips in three rounds, before later victories over Oba Carr and Ralph Jones and a draw with Jose Luis Lopez. Murray, meanwhile, recovered from the defeat rather than disappearing from contention. He successfully defended his Commonwealth championship against Dion Oliver and Michael Smyth, later won the WBA Fedelatin title again, and in 1999 produced one of the outstanding victories of his career when he knocked out the previously unbeaten Michael Covington in the third round at Foxwoods.

For Quartey, however, the evening at Le Cannet was another efficient championship performance during the most destructive period of his reign. Three successive WBA challengers, Cortes, Park and Murray, had now been stopped in the fifth, fourth and fourth rounds respectively. Murray had earned his opportunity through sustained success and came to France as a legitimate Commonwealth champion, but he found the difference between regional championship level and Quartey’s particular combination of strength, accuracy and punching power too great. The fourth-round stoppage left the WBA belt securely with the Ghanaian and carried his championship run forward towards the more internationally recognised contests that followed.

Quartey was a horrible man to fight in this period. He wasn’t flashy, but that jab was like somebody driving a fence post into you. Andrew Murray came in with plenty going for him: Commonwealth champion, 16 straight wins after his early setbacks, and a good southpaw who had earned his chance.

But this was world level, and Quartey was operating at a different pace. He had already taken the WBA title from the unbeaten Crisanto España and was knocking challengers over regularly. Murray could box, but against a man that strong and technically disciplined, he needed something to make Quartey think twice. He never really had it.

Quartey stopped him in the fourth, and I don’t see any disgrace in that. Murray was a proper fighter, but Quartey was near his peak and physically imposing for a welterweight. What made Ike so good was that everything came off that jab, balance, distance, the right hand, even his defence. Once he started controlling your feet with it, you were fighting his fight. Murray found that out the hard way.