{"id":34972,"date":"2025-07-31T04:10:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T04:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/34972\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T04:10:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T04:10:08","slug":"josh-kelly-calls-out-ibf-champion-murtazaliev-promises-to-stand-him-on-his-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/34972\/","title":{"rendered":"Josh Kelly calls out IBF champion Murtazaliev, promises to ‘stand him on his head’"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON, England \u2014 British contender Josh Kelly<\/a> believes he can make IBF junior middleweight champion Bakhram Murtazaliev<\/a> “look silly” given half a chance. <\/p>\n

Kelly and his trainer-manager Adam Booth are attempting to land the Pretty Boy the most significant fight of his career before the end of the year.<\/p>\n

Matchroom boss Eddie Hearn revealed he made an offer for Kelly to fight 154lb newcomer Jaron Ennis in Philadelphia in October, but Booth described the money on offer as “derisory” during an interview with The Ring<\/a> this week.
Meanwhile, Kelly is ranked No. 3 by the IBF and WBO and would jump at the chance to face either of those champions, with Murtazaliev holding the former and Xander Zayas the new WBO king<\/a>.<\/p>\n

During a recent interview with Tha Boxing Voice, Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of the General Entertainment Authority of Saudi Arabia and head of Riyadh Season, said a number of opponents have turned down facing Murtazaliev (23-0, 17 KOs), who won the belt in April 2024 against Jack Culcay and successfully defended it by stopping Tim Tszyu six months later.<\/p>\n

But Kelly (17-1-1, 9 KOs) has made it clear that he would not turn down the chance to face the dangerous puncher \u2014 and is adamant it would be an easy night\u2019s work for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll fight Murtazaliev. I\u2019ll fight him no problem,\u201d he told The Ring<\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard Turki Alalshikh talking on Tha Boxing Voice and he said he can\u2019t get any opponents to fight him. He offered three opponents and everyone is scared.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe put our name in for that fight and we haven\u2019t heard anything back. I\u2019m here. I\u2019ll take Murtazaliev.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019ll make him look silly. I saw him against Jack Culcay and that was a bad night at the office for him. He\u2019s got two arms and two legs exactly like me. I\u2019m faster than him. He probably hits harder and is bigger than me but it\u2019s not about that. It\u2019s about the IQ.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019ve got everything to stand him on his head.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelly may also get the chance to fight the new WBO champion Zayas given his lofty ranking with that sanctioning body. The No. 1 spot is currently vacant and Jorge Garcia Perez, who Zayas beat for the belt this month, is still at No. 2 meaning Kelly is effectively the next available contender for the belt.<\/p>\n

When asked about Zayas, he added: \u201cI should be fighting him next really. He was calling me out last year and at the time none of us really were anywhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut now he\u2019s got the world title, come fight me next. Let me fight you next, I\u2019m the next in the ranking. There\u2019s him, then there\u2019s me. Why not get that on?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON, England \u2014 British contender Josh Kelly believes he can make IBF junior middleweight champion Bakhram Murtazaliev “look…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,6842,6836,6841,6840,6834,6102,6837,6838,6839,6835,6588,6847,6846,6830,6828,6829,6844,6831,6827,6848,6843,101,6845,6826,6833,56,54,55,6832],"class_list":["post-34972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-community","tag-boxing-fights","tag-boxing-history","tag-boxing-interviews","tag-boxing-magazine","tag-boxing-news","tag-boxing-photos","tag-boxing-rankings","tag-boxing-schedule","tag-boxing-videos","tag-boxing-results","tag-disqualification","tag-draw","tag-fight","tag-fighter","tag-fighter-news","tag-knockout","tag-latest-boxing-matches","tag-ring","tag-ring-magazine","tag-split-decision","tag-sports","tag-technical-knockout","tag-the-ring","tag-top-fighters","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-upcoming-boxing-matches"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34972","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=34972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}