Fans want to know if Terence Crawford will be interested in facing IBF junior middleweight champion Bakhram Murtazaliev in a unification fight following his third-round knockout of Tim Tszyu on 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 which he recently won against Israil Madrimov, and 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 later.
Will Crawford fight Murtazaliev?
Fans are expecting 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 easily beats 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. It’s a risky fight for Crawford because Murtazaliev punches 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.
It is unlikely that Crawford, 37, will agree to fight Murtazaliev because he is much more dangerous than his last opponent, Madrimov, and he barely won this fight before 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 was fighting in a safety-first manner, Murtazaliev would catch him and snatch some chips from him. Going 12 rounds against Murtaaliev would be a punishing match, and it doesn’t matter if Crawford runs all night. Murtazaliev will get to him enough to inflict a lot of damage. He will expose Crawford’s advanced age.
“There is no evidence that he will not be avoided again. The only good thing he has is that he has a title. So, because he has a title, he can easily be active, fighting people in the ranks with the IBF and dominating, promoting his fan base and also showing what he brings to the 154 division, but does Bud take this fight?” said Keith Thurman Thaboxingvoiceasking if Terence Crawford wanted to challenge IBF junior middleweight champion Bakhram Murtazaliev.
Unfortunately, Thurman is right about Murtazaliev probably being avoided, and Crawford would be one of the many fighters at 154 who wanted nothing to do with him. Crawford still has the hopeless dream of fighting Canelo Alvarez, which will never happen. It’s like wishing the tooth fairy would appear to leave a dollar under her pillow. This fight is not happening for Crawford in this lifetime. I wish he would wake up and have a clue already.
Murtazaliev Scaring Away Fighters
“Who really wants and takes it and says, ‘This is my next opponent.'” Bakhram stays on his IBF road, defends his title? He says he has to stay on his road until another door opens to make another great fight in this division in the boxing world. But right now, it has a lot of us excited,” said Thurman.
Crawford should take the fight against Murtazaliev to show the fans that he is not afraid and work towards the goal of becoming the undisputed champion at 154. The fans can respect that because Crawford is staying busy, fighting an available champion and (putting in a position to become the Undisputed Champion if he wins and then defeats Fundora for the last two belts If Murtazaliev was an easy mark, Crawford would probably be eager to fight, but that is not the case.
