John Murray, the forgotten man of British boxing, gets an all-too-rare TV top billing this weekend when he meets Andriy Kudryavtsev in Wigan.

By rights the 25-year-old Mancunian should be a household name right now given what he's achieved since turning over in 2003 and, perhaps just as importantly, the manner in which he has achieved it.

He's won WBC youth, English, British and European lightweight titles and done so in swashbuckling fashion (every one of his five British title fights have ended with inside-the-distance wins).

However Murray has dipped under the mainstream public radar and has been eclipsed by the likes of Amir Khan and Kevin Mitchell, despite the fact that he is on the only one of the trio who remains unbeaten.

By his own admission Murray is still to make any real money from the sport and the fact that promoter Mick Hennessy lost a lucrative TV deal with ITV a while back definitely hasn't helped matters.

He's been calling the likes of Khan and Mitchell out for a few years now but those calls have so far fallen on deaf ears.

The only plus point in all of this if you are a Murray fan is that he's still hungry.

It was Marvin Hagler who once said "it's hard to get up at 6am when you are wearing silk pyjamas" and Murray is a fair way from being able to afford that kind of bedroom attire anytime soon.

So he puts his nose back to the grindstone at the Robin Park Centre this weekend against an Eastern European slugger with plenty of experience.

Having lost three of his first four pro bouts few would have forgiven Kudryavtsev for turning it in but his career has been a triumph for perseverance.

He's Ukraine's top lightweight and has already fought unsuccessfully for the European title against Anthony Mezaache. He put up a decent show in that one last year in France before losing on points but it proves he's not intimidated by fighting away from home and he'll be here giving it a go.

By all accounts he's strong, digs well to the body and likes to have a fight just like Murray so fingers crossed their styles should mesh well.

Murray has happy memories of the venue as it was in Wigan where he first claimed the British belt back in 2008 when he beat Lee Meager.

He also stopped Lee McAllister there in January 2009 and Scott Lawton five months after that so he'll be confident of getting the job done again in this one.

Murray's had a 10-week camp ahead of this fight and has enjoyed some useful sparring with gifted fellow Manc Anthony Crolla. He claims the weight is no longer an issue (he was stripped of his British belt after coming in heavy against Lawton in June of last year) and if he shines here is looking to push on and fight for a proper world title in the next 12 months.

The lightweight division is of course red hot with the likes of Juan Manuel Marquez, Robert Guerrero and Michael Katsidis all in the mix but Murray insists that at 25 he's now ready to be let off the leash.

The fact is he should be filling out bigger venues that leisure centres as his style is very fan-friendly. He's promising a tear-up again here and shouldn't have to go looking for his opponent.

Kudryavtsev has only ever been stopped once in 41 fights and that was to decent Namibian Paulus Moses in 2007 so there's no doubting he'll ask questions of Murray.

The Manchester man often takes a round or two to get going but once he does he is relentless and there's a reason some bookies make him as short as 1.03 to win this one.

I reckon it could be a bit more competitive than the layers anticipate as he doesn't mind taking a shot to land one but I fancy him to systematically break Kudryavtsev down and force a stoppage.

Murray to win inside the distance is also an odds-on shot and the man himself said in a recent online interview that he fancies himself to force a stoppage in round eight.

Murray in the eighth is 11.00 and might be worth a speculative pound as I do fancy him to get this done sometime after halfway so get stuck into 34.00 quotes about Murray winning between rounds seven and nine.

PICKS:
Murray to win in rounds 7-9 at 34.00 (bet365).
Murray to win in round 8 at 11.00 (bet365).