The IBF has ordered Junior middleweight champion Bakhram Murtazaliev (22-0, 16 KOs) and #4 Tim Tszyu (24-1, 17 KOs) to begin negotiations for a fight. The two fighters have 30 days to put together a fight before a purse Bid on September 5th
It’s unknown whether Tszyu, 29, will agree to take the fight because he can make more money fighting Terence Crawford or the winners of these two fights:
– Sebastian Fundora vs. Errol Spence
– Vergil Ortiz Jr. vs. Serhii Bohachuk
On the plus side. If Tszyu can capture the IBF title from Murtazaliev, 31, he can use the belt as a pawn to get a better financial deal for a bigger match in a Unification or Crawford.
The biggest prize for Tsyu would be for him to get a chance to fight Crawford, who found out today that His Excellency Turki Alalshikh won’t be moving towards making a fight between him and Canelo Alvarez at super middleweight.
That means Crawford will likely stay at 154 after capturing the WBA junior middleweight title last weekend from Israil Madrimov in a mega-event by Turki as part of one of his Riyadh Season events. If Crawford isn’t interested in fighting Tszyu right now, he might be if he captures the IBF 154-lb title from Murtazaliev.
The little-known Murtazaliev recently captured the vacant IBF junior middleweight title earlier this year, knocking out 38-year-old Jack Culcay in the tenth round in Falkensee, Germany. It’s unclear why the International Boxing Federation sanctioned a fight between Culcay and Murtazaliev.
Culcay hadn’t beaten a notable fighter since his win over Dennis Hogan in 2015, and even that, that guy wasn’t a top-of-the-tree-level fighter. It would have been more palatable if the IBF had insisted that Murtazaliev fight one of these talented contenders for their vacant 154-lb title earlier this year: Erickson Lubin, Tszyu, Jesus Ramos, Vergil Ortiz Jr. or Xander Zayas.
Last Updated on 08/06/2024
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