Bakhram Murtazaliev says he is considering moving up to 160lbs to challenge Erislandy Lara for his WBA middleweight title as the other two champions at 154 are taken.
IBF junior middleweight champion Murtazaliev (23-0, 17 KOs) was seemingly frozen out by top fighters at 154, ignored and deflected.
Too dangerous?
Bakhram’s third-round knockout of former WBO champion Tim Tszyu on October 19 may have scared off any contenders or champions willing to fight him before the devastating deal. He’s better off staying at 154 pounds because he won’t have any better luck at 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-level opponent in seven years since his loss to Jarrett Hurd in 2018.
Lara has enjoyed weaker fighters over the past seven years, including the washed-up Danny Garcia, Michael Zerafa, Thomas Lamanna, Gary O’Sullivan, Greg Vendetti and Ramon Alvarez.
Unless someone like Turki Al-Sheikh spots Murtazaliev 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 wants to fight Murtazaliev, he can hold onto his IBF 154lb title for years without losing it. But on the downside, he won’t make the big bucks that he could if the more famous guys were willing to fight him.
The price of avoidance
Before beating Tszyu, Murtazaliev had been a pro for ten years, fighting little-known opponents. Despite never losing, his career went nowhere.
He wasn’t affiliated with one of the big promotion companies, and that hurt. Promoters such as Eddie Hearn and Top Rank would still have a lot of trouble entering fights for Murtazaliev as he would be seen as too dangerous for other fighters to want to face him.
When you’re as good as Murtazaliev, sometimes it pays not to look so good because then you can fight.
If both champions found opponents at 154, maybe move to 160 and take Lara’s belt?
— bakhram murtazaliev (@bakhram95) January 13, 2025
