Bakhram Murtazaliev could be the next star at 154 if he can clean up the division, defeating the top names who dare to fight him.
WBO junior middleweight champion Murtazaliev (23-0, 17 KOs) made a name for himself among boxing fans by destroying former WBO junior middleweight champion Tim Tszyu in three rounds last Saturday night at the Caribe Royale Resort in Orlando, Florida.
All IBF 154-lb champion Murtazaliev has to do now is beat these fighters to claim the crown in the division:
– Terence Crawford
– Sebastian Fundora
– Israel Madrimov
– Serhii Bohachuk
– Errol Spence
– Vergil Ortiz Jr.
Murtazaliev, 31, will need to act quickly to get those fighters to agree to fight before he starts to age. The way fighters avoid it, it could be years before Murtazaliev gets a chance to fight most of those fighters. That’s under the right circumstances, he also wins.
It is unlikely that Crawford will agree to fight Murtazaliev because he wants to make sure that he does not lose while waiting for Canelo Alvarez to bless him. At first, Crawford may have thought that it would be a piece of cake for him to collect all the belts at 154, but after his fight with Madrimov, he understands that it will not be the same for him.
“We were shocked when Murtazaliev beat Tszyu. Now you can see that Murtazaliev is a devastating and powerful force within the weight class. He has a weight full of powerful and destructive power,” said Paulie Malignaggi speaking to Probox TV, discussing the victory of IBF junior middleweight champion Bakhram Murtazaliev in the third round over former WBO 154-lb champion Tim Tszyu last Saturday night in Orlando.
If Murtazaliev can’t get the top fighters to agree to face him, he’ll need to move up to 160 to get more serious fight opportunities. Honorable Turki Alalshikh may make things easier for him if he can make it worthwhile for some of the top 154 fighters to face Murtazaliev. He hasn’t said anything about wanting to do that.
“He had a smart and good fight with Madrimov and Crawford. Where will you go? I don’t know if Crawford wants to fight at 154 anymore because there just isn’t enough star power to tickle his fancy. I think Vergil Ortiz and Murtazaliev would be a devastating clash of forces. “
“If Murtazaliev goes out there and beats all these guys. He’s not a great talker or a very marketable guy, but guess what? He’s a bad guy. He beat a whole weight class. Now you’ve got a star on your hands,” said Chris Algieri. “If you can fight and beat everybody , eventually, everyone will pay attention.”
If it was that easy for Murtazaliev to get fights against the top guy at 154, he would have done it a long time ago, and he wouldn’t have spent 10 years of his career fighting the unknown. But now that Tszyu has been beaten, he may be considered a leper by other top players in this category.
“When you have a guy like Murtazaliev, who fought anonymously his whole career. He was taking money for a lot of opportunities. He fights Tim Tszyu and knocks him out of the water. That’s how you become a star.”
Murtazaliev was not a real star, but at least now he is known as a die-hard boxing fan after the destruction of Tszyu. What will accelerate the process of turning Murtazaliev into a star will be Crawford agreeing to fight him.
Again, that won’t happen because he realizes how good these fighters are at 154 now after his close call against Madrimov, and he doesn’t want to take an even bigger risk against Murtazaliev.
Source link
