IBF junior middleweight champion Bakhram Murtazaliev has turned his attention to making the mandatory defense of his belt versus Erickson Lubin, BoxingScene learned Tuesday.
Murtazaliev promoter Kathy Duva previously was pushing for Murtazaliev, 23-0 (17 KOs), to gain an IBF exception and fight England’s Josh Kelly in the late summer-early fall, but the IBF informed Duva it was going to demand the mandatory defense against top-ranked Lubin, 27-2 (19 KOs), by November, making the scheduling of both bouts impossible.
Earlier efforts to strike a deal between Murtazaliev and Kelly slowed over efforts to strike a broadcast deal, Murtazaliev’s manager Igor Klimas confirmed to BoxingScene. Duva and Tom Brown of TGB Promotions/Premier Boxing Champions subsequently shared a Tuesday morning phone call to move forward on Murtazaliev-Lubin.
Russia’s Murtazaliev became champion with a road win in Germany over Jack Culcay, then more emphatically defended his belt by knocking down former WBO champion Tim Tszyu four times before finishing him in the third round in October in Florida.
Florida’s Lubin, 29, is coming off an 11th-round stoppage of Ardreal Holmes in May, his third consecutive victory since a loss to WBC junior middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora.
The effort to fight Kelly was based on Duva’s interest in staging the Lubin fight before Murtazaliev needed to take a break for Ramadan beginning in February after training through the religious period for Culcay.
Duva said Saudi Arabia boxing financier Turki Alalshikh also sought a Murtazaliev bout against unbeaten WBC interim champion Vergil Ortiz Jnr, but when the subject was broached with the Ortiz camp, they rejected the fight because of the IBF requirement of a fight-day weigh-in in which both the champion and challenger are forbidden from rehydrating more than 10 pounds over the bout’s weight limit.
“Seems odd that they’d say no after only recently moving up in weight, but that’s what happened,” Duva said.
When the IBF pressed the issue on Murtazaliev fighting within three months of this week, Duva said there was no option but to meet Lubin, whose only other loss was to former undisputed 154lbs champion Jermell Charlo in 2017.
