A fight is in the works for IBF junior middleweight champion Bakhram Murtazaliev to defend against #3 Josh Kelly for January 24 or 31st in the UK. It\u2019s a clash that\u2019s been talked about for months, and it\u2019s finally about to happen. This will reportedly be a Matchroom-promoted event.<\/p>\n
Murtazaliev (23-0, 17 KOs) has been inactive since scoring a third-round knockout of Tim Tszyu on October 19, 2024. The way that Bakhram obliterated the former WBO 154-lb champion Tszyu backfired on him, turning him into the boogeyman of the division, to the point where he was relegated to the \u2018who needs him\u2019 club.<\/p>\n
Boogeyman Heads to Britain<\/p>\n
The Ring broke the news<\/a> of the Murtazaliev vs. Kelly fight being in the works for January 24th or 31st in England.<\/p>\n On paper, this fight is a huge mismatch in favor of the 32-year-old Bakhram. He\u2019s a massive puncher with either hand, and he\u2019s going to have a big advantage in power over the finesse fighter, Kelly (17-1-1, 9 KOs). This fight could be a classic Tom and Jerry type of match unless Kelly chooses to fight with his back against the ropes, as he did in his sixth-round blowout loss to David Avanesyan on February 20, 2021.<\/p>\n The 2016 Olympian Kelly has won his last seven fights, rebuilding his career since his defeat against Avanesyan. However, he hasn\u2019t fought any of the dangerous 154-pounders to rebuild in a true sense. The opposition that Kelly has beaten in the last four years has been lesser ones.<\/p>\n Kelly\u2019s 7-fight winning streak<\/p>\n Flavius Biea UK Fans Get Their Thriller<\/p>\n Murtazaliev vs. Kelly is a fight that will interest fans in the UK, but it\u2019s not one that will play well for U.S fans. They\u2019d prefer to see Murtazaliev defend against Jaron \u2018Boots\u2019 Ennis, Vergil Ortiz Jr., or face Sebastian Fundora.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Boxing News<\/a> | Boxing News<\/a> | Boogeyman Returns: Bakhram Murtazaliev to Face Josh Kelly in January UK Showdown After Devastating Knockout of Tim Tszyu<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A fight is in the works for IBF junior middleweight champion Bakhram Murtazaliev to defend against #3 Josh…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-230687","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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