Boxing: Middleweight champ Murata to risk crown in bid for big prize

Japan's Ryota Murata will not make a mandatory defense of his WBA middleweight title as the 2012 London Olympic champ has bigger fish to fry, his gym chairman said Tuesday.Earlier, the WBA had announced that Murata's Teiken Gym and promoter Top Rank had rejected a 50-50 split of the purse against second-ranked challenger Rob Brant. Regardless of the reasons, Murata's side stressed that a fight against Brant is not part of the Japanese Olympic champ's big picture.According to American sports site espn.com, the 50-50 split of the purse for the Brant fight had been mandated by the WBA as a con…READ FULL ARTICLE