Bakhram Murtazaliev says he’s contemplating transferring as much as 160 kilos to problem Erislandy Lara for his WBA middleweight title as a result of the opposite two champions at 154 are busy.
The IBF Junior middleweight champion Murtazaliev (23-0, 17 KOs) has seemingly been frozen out by the highest fighters at 154, ignored, and swerved.
Too Harmful?
Bakhram’s third-round knockout of former WBO champion Tim Tszyu on October nineteenth might have scared off any contenders or champions who would have been keen to struggle him earlier than that demolition job. He’s higher off staying put at 154 kilos as a result of he received’t have any higher luck going as much as middleweight.
Sadly for Murtazaliev, it’s unlikely that the 41-year-old Lara (31-3-3, 19 KOs) will comply with struggle him both. Lara hasn’t fought a high-level opponent in seven years since his loss to Jarrett Hurd in 2018.
Lara has feasted on lesser fighters within the final seven years, together with washed-up Danny Garcia, Michael Zerafa, Thomas Lamanna, Gary O’Sullivan, Greg Vendetti, and Ramon Alvarez.
Except somebody like Turki Al-Sheikh takes discover of Murtazaliev to assist him get fights, he will probably be caught defending whoever his administration can dig up within the IBF’s rankings. That’s each good and unhealthy.
If no good fighters ever need to struggle Murtazaliev, he can maintain onto his IBF 154-lb title for years with out dropping it. However on the unfavourable aspect, he received’t make the large cash that he might get if the extra identified guys had been keen to struggle him.
The Price of Avoidance
Earlier than beating Tszyu, Murtazaliev had been an expert for ten years, preventing little-known opposition. Regardless of by no means dropping, his profession went nowhere.
He wasn’t connected with one of many massive promotional firms, and that harm. Promoters like Eddie Hearn and Prime Rank would nonetheless have had loads of issues moving into fights for Murtazaliev as a result of he would have been seen as too harmful for different fighters to need to face him.
If you’re pretty much as good as Murtazaliev, typically it pays off to not look so good as a result of then you will get fights.
If each champions at 154 have discovered opponents, perhaps transfer as much as 160 and take Lara belt?
— bakhram murtazaliev (@bakhram95) January 13, 2025