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Bakram Murtazalev says he is considering moving up to 160 pounds to challenge Erislandi Lara for the WBA middleweight title.
IBF junior middleweight champion Murtazalev (23-0, 17 KOs) seemed to be frozen out, ignored and turned away by top fighters at 154.
Too dangerous?
Buckram’s third-round bout against former WBO champion Tim Tzu may have threatened any challengers or champions willing to fight him before his demolition job on October 19. He better stay at 154 pounds because he won’t have a better chance of moving up to middleweight.
Unfortunately for Murtazaliev, the 41-year-old Lara (31-3-3, 19 KOs) is unlikely to agree to fight him as well. In the year After losing to Jarrett Hurd in 2018, Lara hasn’t fought a top-ranked opponent in seven years.
Lara has feasted on smaller fighters over the past seven years, including the washed-up Danny Garcia, Michael Zerrafa, Thomas Lamanna, Gary O’Sullivan, Greg Vendetti and Ramon Alvarez.
Unless someone like Turki Al-Sheikh is given a fight against Murtazaliv, he’ll be immune to whatever his management can dig up at the IBF level. That’s both good and bad.
If good fighters don’t want to fight Murtazaliv, he could hold the IBF 154-lb title for years without losing it. But on the downside, he doesn’t make the big bucks he could if more famous people were willing to fight him.
Removal cost
Murtazalev had been a pro for almost a decade, fighting little-known opponents before hitting Tyu. Even though he didn’t lose, his career went nowhere.
He was not connected to the big promotion companies, and that hurt. The likes of Eddie Hearn and top promoters still had a lot of trouble getting Murtazlev into fights because he was seen as too dangerous for other fighters to face him.
When you’re as good as Murtazaliv, sometimes it’s worth not looking good because then you might get into a fight.
If both champions get opponents at 154, maybe move to 160 and take Lara’s belt?
– bakhram Murtazaliev (@bakhram95) January 13, 2025
