Bakhram Murtazaliev could become the next star at 154 if he can clean out the division, beating the top names that are brave enough to fight him.
The 10-year professional Murtazaliev (23-0, 17 KOs) made a name for himself with hardcore 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.
What IBF 154-lb champion Murtazaliev needs to do now is defeat these fighters to claim the throne in the division:
– Terence Crawford
– Sebastian Fundora
– Israil Madrimov
– Serhii Bohachuk
– Errol Spence
– Vergil Ortiz Jr.
Murtazaliev, 31, will need to work quickly to get those fighters to agree to fight before he starts aging out. The way fighters avoid each other, it could take Murtazaliev years before he’d get a chance to fight most of those fighters. That’s under ideal circumstances, with him winning.
It’s unlikely that Crawford will accept a fight with Murtazaliev because he wants to make sure he doesn’t lose while waiting for Canelo Alvarez to bless him. Initially, 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 against Madrimov, he understands that it’not going to be the same for him.
“We had the shock of Murtazaliev beating Tszyu. Now you realize that Murtazaliev is a very destructive and powerful force within the weight class. You have a weight full of powerful and destructive forces,” said Paulie Malignaggi to Probox TV, discussing IBF junior middleweight champion Bakhram Murtazaliev’s third-round knockout win 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 opportunities for important fights. His Excellency Turki Alalshikh could make things easier for him if he can make it worthwhile for the other top fighters at 154 to face Murtazaliev. He hasn’t said anything yet about wanting to do that.
“You had tactical and beautiful boxing with Madrimov and Crawford. Which direction are you going to go? I don’t know if Crawford wants to fight at 154 anymore because there’s not enough star power there to tickle his fancy. I think Vergil Ortiz and Murtazaliev would be a collision of destructive powers.”
“If Murtazaliev goes out there and beats all these guys. He’s not a great talker or very marketable, but guess what? He’s a bad man. He beat up 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 is going to pay attention.”
If it were that easy for Murtazaliev to get the fights against the top guy at 154, he’d have done it a long time ago, and he wouldn’t have wasted 10 years of his career fighting unknowns. But now that he’s beaten Tszyu, he’s likely to be treated like a leper by the other top fighters in the division.
“If you’ve got a guy like Murtazaliev, who was fighting unknown for his whole career. He was taking step aside money for a bunch of opportunities. He fights Tim Tszyu and blows him out of the water. That’s how you become a star.”
Murtazaliev hasn’t become a true star, but he’s at least now known by the hardcore boxing fand after his destruction of Tszyu. What would speed up the process of turning Murtazaliev into a star would be of Crawford agreed to fight him.
Again, that’s unlikely to happen because he realizes how good these fighters are at 154 now after his close call against Madrimov, and he wont want to take an even bigger risk against Murtazaliev.
Read the full article here
