“He Won’t Fight Me” World Champion With 75% KO Ratio Says He’d Destroy Terence Crawford’s Legacy: “He Won’t Fight Me”
Terence Crawford looks set to face Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, leaving behind the super-welterweight division after just one fight.
That bout, a points win over Israil Madrimov, came in October 2024 and made the American pound-for-pound star a four-weight world champion
Rather than stick around to unify the belts and perhaps become undisputed, something he has done in two of his four previous divisions, ‘Bud’ is slated to move up to super-middleweight for the Canelo mega fight.
If those plans fail for whatever reason, Bakhram Murtazaliev is waiting in the wings. The undefeated Russian won the vacant IBF Super-Welterweight World Title in April last year by stopping Jack Culcay in eleven rounds.
His first defence really put him on the map – a three-round destruction of Tim Tszyu. Speaking to Manouk Akopyan, the 32-year-old made it clear that he wanted to collect more belts.
“I would like to fight Crawford or [WBC Champion Sebastian] Fundora, maybe both.”
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Murtazaliev, however, is realistic in his chances of landing the fight. Crawford has reportedly struck a deal with Canelo, likely leaving his WBA belt behind.
The IBF Champion believes he is too high risk for ‘Bud’ and that the defeat he would be so confident of delivering would hurt the pound-for-pound star’s legacy.
“Crawford fighting me is taking a big chance, because he can lose. If he loses, all of his work for all of those years, people are gonna turn against him. Like ‘oh yeah, he was not the best.’
If he goes up and fights Canelo, that’s two different weight classes, nobody’s gonna say he messed up, they’ll say that’s too heavy for him, he tried … That’s why the Crawford probably wouldn’t fight.”
Murtazaliev is instead likely to make a voluntary defence before seeking out Fundora, who puts his WBC belt on the line against Chordale Booker on March 22 in Las Vegas.
