ANDREW `The Eagle’ Murray was far removed from the welterweight division when he fought American Michael Corleone on September 22, 1998 in Madison Square Garden. The southpaw Guyanese had travelled up to 156 pounds to challenge Corleone and won by TKO in the final round of a six-round contest.
The victory increased Murray’s winning streak to seven fights. His last defeat was at the hands of Ghanaian Ike Quartey, while challenging for the World Boxing Association welterweight title in August 1995.
Murray joined the professional ranks in February 1990 and suffered back-to-back defeats at the hands of Pascal David later that year. He then teamed up with manager Odinga Lumumba who piloted him to a Commonwealth welterweight title in 1993.
Moving up from welterweight to junior middleweight Murray stunned the boxing world when he knocked out then world-rated Michael Covington in November 1999. The one-punch KO occurred in round three of a fight scheduled for ten and was held at Foxwoods Resort in Connecticut.
His performance was so devastating that the internationally respected Ring Magazine rated it as one of the best knockouts of the year.
Murray had four more fights before being involved in a fatal car accident on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway on January 26, 2002. He was 30 years old.