Something seriously needs to be done about this. The number of fighters ducking Bakhram is ridiculous—everyone from Victor Ortiz to Erickson Lubin to Josh Kelly has avoided him. Even Jaron Ennis, who was the IBF welterweight champion, could have petitioned for a fight but didn’t. Turki Alalshikh even admitted on The Boxing Voice YouTube channel that Bakhram is being avoided and that fighters are scared of him. It’s a tale as old as time the same thing happened to Gennady Golovkin. Bakhram is being aged out; he's already 32 and will turn 33 in January. And when he eventually loses, the same fans will say he fought no one and start disrespecting his résumé. Just like they did with Golovkin.
The locking out of eastern european monsters is nothing new in pro boxing. You shouldn't be comparing him to GGG though from one stand out performance.
I'm not trying to compare them, but there's a clear pattern I've been noticing. It happened with Golovkin and Beterbiev, and now I see the same thing happening with Bakhram and Janibek. They’re being aged out, and it's getting ridiculous. The only real solution is to have one belt per weight class, which would force the best to fight each other, like in the UFC
Not Beterbiev. He got a title shot quite quickly and whilst Bivol avoided him they have now fought twice.
Josh Kelly will get slaughtered by Murtazaliev, even Bohachuk would slaughter him, who’s a poor man’s Murtazaliev.
Except GGG and Beterbiev are actually top 10-15 atgs in their weight class while Bakhram and Janibek will be forgotten in 10 years.
Erickson Lubin is Murtazaliev's mandatory, but they were supposed to come to a deal by August 4th. So far, there's been nothing except that Erickson Lubin is trying to make a fight with Vergil Ortiz instead of Murtazaliev. How ****ing ridiculous is this? A mandatory who rather fight a non-champion than the champion. He has the path to the belt and he doesn't want it.
I feel like Lubin has a better chance to beat Murtazaliev but I’m guessing Vergil payday is a lot bigger