IBF champ Bakhram Murtazaliev wanted to fight Crawford himself – now he analyzes his chances against superstar Canelo.
IBF half-middleweight world champion Bakhram Murtazaliev will be watching with great interest on September 13 when Canelo Álvarez and Terence Crawford face off in Las Vegas. Murtazaliev would have loved to fight Crawford himself. But the chance of a mega-fight against Canelo took priority for “The Bud”.
“For me, this is a real 50-50 fight,” says the unbeaten Russian in an interview with The Ring. “Crawford can beat Canelo on points – if he doesn’t get hit hard. But if Canelo hits him early, it’s dangerous. His power is impressive across all weight classes.”
The 32-year-old knows what he is talking about: he himself started his career at super-middleweight, later fought at middleweight before establishing himself at half-middleweight. In training, Murtazaliev sparred with the light heavyweight greats Sergey Kovalev and Oleksandr Gvozdyk, among others. “You feel the force of bigger opponents – every extra kilo means more damage to the brain.”
While Crawford and Canelo are heading for the big payday, Murtazaliev is still waiting for his next opponent. After his dominant victory over Tim Tszyu in October 2024, no suitable opponent has been found so far – even mandatory opponent Erickson Lubin has avoided him. The IBF is now planning a fight against Brit Josh Kelly.
Text by Robin Josten