At the age of 29, John Murray former European and British boxing champion has been forced to retire.
After receiving two operations on a detached retina, doctors have ordered Murray to hang up his gloves or else risk permanent blindness.
In a recent interview with ITV Murray stated: “I’ve had 20/20 vision for my whole life, but at the moment I can hardly see anything out of my right eye. I’ve been told that if I keep taking punches I could go completely blind. It’s just not worth it anymore.”
During his very successful career Murray has won a total of 33 out of his 36 fights and has also participated in fights in the US. In Las Vegas he won both of his bouts and was also chief support to Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito at Madison Square Garden.
Murray has now opened up his own gym by the name of Murray Machines Gymnasium located on Station Road in Reddish, Stockport and has begun working as a boxing trainer, which is helping him to overcome the end of his boxing career.
“Everything that I’ve made from boxing has gone into this; it has to work,” he said. “I’ve put all of my time and effort into it. I’ll make sure it works.”
“Watching these lads fight and train, and watching them getting their hands raised at the end of it and seeing how happy they are; that gives me more of a buzz than I was getting at the end of my career. I really do enjoy it.”