Bakhram Murtzaliev says he is considering moving up to 160 pounds to challenge Erislandy Lara for his WBA middleweight title because the other two champions are busy at 154.

IBF junior middleweight champion Murtzaliev (23-0, 17 KOs) has seemingly been frozen out, ignored and upset at 154 by top fighters.

Too dangerous?

Bakhram's third-round knockout of former WBO champion Tim Tszyu on October 19th scared off any contenders or champions who were willing to fight him before that demolition job. He better stay at 154 pounds because he won't have much luck until middleweight.

Unfortunately for Murtzaliev, it's unlikely that the 41-year-old Lara (31-3-3, 19 KOs) will agree to fight him. Lara hasn't fought a high-level opponent in seven years since losing to Jarrett Hurd in 2018.

Lara has feasted on lesser fighters over the past seven years, including Danny Garcia, Michael Zerrafa, Thomas LaManna, Gary O'Sullivan, Greg Vendetti and Ramon Alvarez.

If someone like Turki Al-Sheikh doesn't put Murtzaliev on notice to help him get fights, he'll be stuck protecting whoever his management can dig up in the IBF rankings. That is both good and bad.

If a good fighter never wants to fight Murtzaliev, he can hold his IBF 154-pound title for years without losing it. But on the downside, he won't be making the big bucks that he could if more well-known guys were willing to fight him.

Avoidance costs

Before beating Tszyu, Murtzaliev had been a professional for ten years, fighting little-known opponents. Even though he never lost, his career went nowhere.

He wasn't affiliated with a major promotional agency and it hurt. Promoters like Eddie Hearn and Top Rank would still have a lot of trouble getting Murtzaliev to fight because he was seen as too dangerous for other fighters to face him.

When you're as good as Murtzaliev, sometimes it doesn't look so good because then you can fight.

If both champions find opponents at 154, maybe move to 160 and Lara takes the belt?

— Bakhram Murtzaliev (@bakhram95) January 13, 2025