Fans want to know if Terence Crawford would be interested in facing IBF junior middleweight champion Bakhram Murtazaliev in a unification fight following his third round knockout of Tim Tszyu last Saturday night at the Caribe Royale in Orlando, Florida.
(Credit: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing)
Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) holds the WBA 154 lb title he recently won against Israil Madrimov, and he was scheduled to fight WBC/WBO champion Sebastian Fundora. That fight fell through when the WBO allowed Fundora to make a voluntary defense against Errol Spence.
Will Crawford fight Murtazaliev?
Fans are waiting for Crawford to show some courage by calling out Murtazaliev and putting together what would be a massive unification fight. Casual boxing fans on social media believe that Crawford would easily beat Murtazaliev, but I don’t see it that way.
Crawford is now without an opponent, and fighting Murtazaliev (23-0, 17 KOs) would make the most sense if he was brave enough to fight him. It’s a risky fight for Crawford because Murtazaliev hits just as hard, if not harder, than ‘Little GGG’ Madrimov, but he’s more aggressive, throws power shots with both hands and has a high punch output. In many ways, Murtazaliev is more formidable than Madrimov.
Crawford, 37, is unlikely to agree to fight Murtazaliev because he is far more dangerous than his last opponent, Madrimov, and he barely won that fight earlier this year on August 3. Crawford obviously knows that if he were to fight Murtazaliev, there would be a good chance he would be knocked out.
Even if Crawford fought in a safe manner, Murtazaliev would catch up to knock some chips off him. Going 12 rounds against Murtaaliev will be a tough match, and it won’t matter if Crawford ran all night. Murtazaliev would get to him enough to do a lot of damage. He would expose Crawford’s advanced age.
“There is no evidence that he will not be shunned again. The only good thing he has is that he has a title. So, because he has a title, he can easily stay active, fight and dominate people in the ranks with the IBF, promote his fan base and further show us what he brings to the 154 division, but does Bud want Bakhram? Does Bud take that fight?” Keith Thurman said Thabok voicequestioned whether Terence Crawford would want to challenge IBF junior middleweight champion Bakhram Murtazaliev.
Unfortunately, Thurman is right about Murtazaliev likely being shunned, and Crawford will be one of the many fighters at 154 who wants nothing to do with him. Crawford still has the hopeless dream of fighting Canelo Alvarez, which is never going to happen. It’s like wishing the tooth fairy would appear to leave him a dollar under his pillow. That fight isn’t happening for Crawford in this lifetime. I wish he would wake up and get a clue already.
Murtazaliev scares fighters away
“Who really wants that and takes it and says, ‘That’s my next opponent.’ Does Bakhram stay in his IBF lane and defend his title? He says he has to stay in his lane until another door opens to have another big fight in this division in the world of boxing. But right now, he’s got a lot of us excited,” Thurman said.
Crawford needs to take on the fight against Murtazaliev to show fans that he is not afraid and is working towards the goal of becoming undisputed champion at 154. Fans can respect that because Crawford will stay busy, fight an available champion and (put himself in a position to win the undisputed champion and then defeat Fundora for the last two belts. If Murtazaliev was an easy mark , Crawford would probably be eager to fight him, but that’s not the case.
