The highest fighters at 154, Vergil Ortiz Jr. and Terence Crawford have proven little interest in going through IBF junior middleweight champion Bakhram Murtazaliev after his third-round knockout win in opposition to Tim Tszyu on October nineteenth.
Ortiz Jr. Stays Silent
Surprisingly, Murtazaliev’s identify wasn’t talked about as even a backup possibility for Ortiz Jr. to battle on the February twenty second card in Riyadh. As an alternative of Murtazaliev being one of many choices for Vergil, Xander Zayas, and Erislandy Lara have been within the operating earlier than Israil Madrimov was in the end chosen.
We don’t know if Madrimov will be capable to make the February twenty second date as a result of he has a tricky battle this month in opposition to Serghii Bohachuk on December twenty first. Why hasn’t Murtazaliev’s identify been floated as a possible substitute for Ortiz Jr. to battle if Madrimov can’t make it?
That efficiency by Murtazaliev (23-0, 17 KOs) could have scared off Vergil Jr., Crawford, and unified WBC and WBO 154-lb champion Sebastian Fundora. The best way Murtazaliev sliced via the previous WBO champion Tszyu, knocking him down 3 times in spherical two and a ultimate time within the third, was harking back to how a younger 24-year-old George Foreman destroyed Joe Frazier in two rounds on January twenty second, 1973.
At 154, Murtazaliev has turn into a part of the untouchable class, with not one of the prime canine wanting to combine it up with him for worry of ending up in the identical boat as poor Tszyu.
