It has been a frustrating 15 months for IBF junior middleweight titleholder Bakhram Murtazaliev.
It looked as though 2025 could become a fruitful year for Russia’s Murtazaliev after he blitzed through Tim Tszyu in October 2024, but it proved instead to be one full of empty promises. Murtazaliev almost performed too well against Tszyu when dropping him on four occasions before finishing the Australian in the third round. Since then he’s got nowhere near the leading names in the 154lbs division, and he’s been forced to wait for a willing contender.
None of the other champions fought Murtazaliev. The WBC titleholder Sebastian Fundora opted for a rematch with Tszyu before signing to face Keith Thurman. The WBO and WBA beltholders Xander Zayas and Abass Baraou sought a unification fight with each other. Murtazaliev, 33, even struggled to get his own mandatory challenger in the ring – Erickson Lubin chose a bout with Vergil Ortiz Jnr instead.
“I’m a little bit disappointed because other fighters were kind of talking, saying, ‘Yes, yes,’ but when it comes to the business, nobody will take it, so that's the problem,” Murtazaliev told BoxingScene through a translator.
The two standout names in the division, Jaron “Boots” Ennis and Ortiz, have been involved in ongoing fight talks. The pair’s teams cannot come to an agreement to match what they claim is the two best fighters in the division. Murtazaliev revealed that he has had the same issue with both.
“They had the opportunity to fight me – Ortiz twice and also Ennis – but they did not fight me because they could have fought with me,” Murtazaliev said. “So if they think they’re the best in their weight division, but they’re not fighting other boxers and they don’t have belts. So who did they beat in their division? Which big names [have they beat] to call themselves the best? So they haven’t.
“I would have won this. One is Mexican and one is American, and they have a fan base that is supporting them. Other than that, I don’t see them as big, because first of all they haven’t fought anybody with big names, and how can they call themselves the best in my division? Back home nobody even knows them.”
Murtazaliev has finally found a challenger willing to step through the ropes and face him. Britain’s Josh Kelly has accepted the daunting task at hand and will fight Murtazaliev on Saturday in Newcastle, England. The Sunderland local has already accepted a first defense of the IBF title, should he be victorious, against Ennis.
“Josh Kelly can fight with Ennis after losing to me, because who else is he going to fight?” Murtazaliev joked. “Ennis can fight with me anytime. My door is open for him and if he wants, he can fight. In the media, they talk that they want to fight the best and when it comes to the business they try to avoid the fight, or they put the amount of the money too high that it’s not affordable for the fight. So it’s basically – it’s about the money, the money and the business. My door is open to any fighter in the division.”
Should Murtazaliev win on Saturday against Kelly, will his focus again turn towards getting a fellow belt holder in the ring?
“After fighting Team Tszyu, yes, that was my goal, to collect all the belts, but because I didn't fight for a very long time and the politics going on in boxing, it’s going to be very difficult even to make a unification fight,” he explained. “As you see me still, I’m not having those unification fights, in today’s boxing it’s going to be very difficult. But I think for me right now, if there won’t be any changes, I might go down or go up. So I can be a world champion in maybe a different division.”
It seems absurd that Murtazaliev, an enormous junior middleweight, could drop down to welterweight in the hope of finding a titleholder willing to share the ring with him.
“I don't have any problem with cutting weight,” he said of the drop down in weight. “You know, if I was supposed to cut weight for today, I would have done that. And even when I was fighting Tim Tszyu, my weight was 151 [pounds] the next morning. And if there's going to be a good deal, I can fight at 147 [pounds] as well. I can drop down to 147. No problem.”
Tom Ivers is a lifelong fight fan and former amateur boxer who has a master’s degree in sports journalism. He had his first bout in 2013 and spent the majority of his career at the Salisbury Amateur Boxing Club in Liverpool, England, where he won two regional titles. Tom joined BoxingScene in 2024 and is now a key part of the UK and social media teams. You can reach him @tomosivers on X and Instagram.
