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Bakhram Murtazaliev says he is considering moving up to 160 pounds to challenge Erislandi Lara for his WBA middleweight title because the other two champions at 154 are taken.
IBF junior middleweight champion Murtazaliev (23-0, 17 KOs) seemed to be frozen out by the top fighters at 154, ignored and deflected.
Too dangerous?
Buckhram’s third-round knockout of former WBO champion Tim Tsziu on Oct. 19 may have scared away any contenders or champions who would be willing to fight him before that demolition job. He better stay at 154 pounds because he won’t have any better luck moving up to middleweight.
Unfortunately for Murtazaliev, it is unlikely that the 41-year-old Lara (31-3-3, 19 KOs) will agree to fight him. Lara hasn’t fought a high-profile opponent in seven years since his loss to Jarrett Hurd in 2018.
Lara has enjoyed weaker fighters over the past seven years, including washed-up Danny Garcia, Michael Zerafa, Thomas Lamana, Gary O’Sullivan, Greg Vendetti and Ramon Alvarez.
Unless someone like Turki Al-Sheikh spots Murtazali to help him fight, he’ll be stuck defending whoever his management can dig up in the IBF rankings. That’s both good and bad.
If no good fighter ever wants to fight Murtazali, he can hold onto his IBF 154lb title for years without losing it. But on the downside, he’s not going to make the big bucks that he might if more famous guys were willing to fight him.
The cost of avoidance
Before beating Tsziu, Murtazaliev had been a pro for ten years, fighting little-known opposition. Despite never losing, his career went nowhere.
He wasn’t affiliated with one of the big promotion companies, and that hurt. Promoters like Eddie Hearn and Top Rank would still have a lot of trouble getting Murtazaliev into fights because he would be too dangerous for other fighters to want to face him.
When you’re as good as Murtazali, sometimes it pays not to look so good because then you can win fights.
If both champs at 154 have found opponents, maybe move to 160 and take Lara’s belt?
— bakhram murtazaliev (@bakhram95) January 13, 2025
