Boxer Bahram Murtazaliev will fight for the IBF world title after Jermell Charlo was stripped of his title

Russian boxer Bahram Murtazaliev got a chance to win the championship title of the International Boxing Federation (IBF) in the up to 69.9 kg category, which the structure took away from the famous American Jermell Charlo due to his refusal to follow its regulations and fight with a mandatory challenger. To get the title, Murtazaliev will need to cope with veteran Jack Culcay representing Germany.

International Boxing Federation announced that the famous American boxer Jermell Charlo voluntarily vacated her junior middleweight championship belt. This is the second title in a row that Charlo has lost. Before this, the title was taken away from the fighter by the World Boxing Organization (WBO). Charlo thus lost his status as an absolute world champion, that is, the best in all four main versions (he remains the champion of the World Boxing Council (WBC) and the World Boxing Association (WBA)).

In both cases, despite the difference in wording, the reason that led to Jermell Charlo parting with the belts is the same. In September of this year, he had a very commercially profitable fight with another absolute world champion – the enormously popular Mexican Saul Alvarez, for his sake he made a jump up two categories, to super middleweight (up to 76.2 kg). Charlo was defeated, but the parties agreed in advance on a rematch.

Even before the fight, the WBO regarded his action as an actual violation of obligations to the organization and avoidance of meeting with its challenger. It was believed that the American was supposed to fight Australian Tim Tszyu, the new superstar of professional boxing, who got a belt. Actually, the IBF took the same position. But it, unlike the WBO, appointed a bidding for the right to organize a fight between Jermell Charlo and the mandatory challenger, setting a deadline for them on November 21.

Charlo’s representatives refused to participate in the auction.

Thanks to their decision, Russian boxer Bahram Murtazaliev, the same contender who was scheduled to fight for the vacant belt against Jack Culcay, received an excellent chance to win the championship title.

A native of Grozny, Murtazaliev is developing his professional career in the USA, and achieved the Candidate rank back in 2019.

But Murtazaliev did not use it. First, he allowed Jeison Rosario, who held the IBF and WBA titles four years ago, to fight with WBC champion Jermell Charlo. Then Bakhram Murtazaliev made a concession (as he claims ESPNin exchange for monetary compensation) to Charlo, who had already won that fight, who wanted, instead of a mandatory defense, to have two matches with WBO belt holder Brian Castano.

The track record of Murtazaliev, who is 30 years old, according to BoxRecslightly different from the same ESPN data, only two defeats with 26 wins, but he lost a long time ago, at the dawn of his professional career, in 2012.

At the same time, he was still not considered a truly top fighter due to the mediocre level of most opponents.

Even the 12-round fight was the only one in Murtazaliev’s life. In it, in 2019, he defeated the Spaniard Jorge Fortea.

However, most likely, in a fight against a ranked IBF just behind Jack Culkay’s Russian, who was born in Ecuador but represents Germany, Bahram Murtazaliev will still likely be the favorite. Kulkay has much more experience of facing elite opponents such as Demetrius Andrade or Sergey Derevyanchenko, but at 38 years old he looks like a boxer who is still past his peak. True, at his peak, in the middle of the previous decade, Jack Culcay was extremely dangerous. He even managed to win the WBA interim junior middleweight title. It did not become a title without any attachments and reservations precisely because of the loss in 2017 to Demetrius Andreid, an American superstar. However, Andrade prevailed in that match with great difficulty by a split decision.

Alexey Dospehov