Earlier today, Lance Pugmire reported that IBF super welterweight champion Bakhram Murtazaliev and mandatory challenger Josh Kelly had finally come to terms for their long-brewing title bout and would
meet this coming January in Newcastle, England.
Dan Rafael now confirms that the pair narrowly avoided a scheduled purse bid and will fight on January 31st. Both agree that Matchroom Boxing will promote the bout; Murtazaliev (23-0, 17 KO) fights under Kathy Duva’s Man Events, while Kelly (17-1-1, 9 KO) is a longstanding client of the Sauerlands.
Many thanks to the keen-eyed RoidingOldMan for spotting Rafael’s post.
The last-minute agreement figures to be a windfall for Kelly, who otherwise faced a cartoonishly lopsided but IBF-standard 85/15 split had the purse bid gone through. As for Murtazaliev, I’m sure he’s happy with anything that gets him back in the ring, as the Kelly saga and Erickson Lubin’s decision to ditch his mandatory status in favor of fighting Vergil Ortiz Jr have kept the Russian out of action for over a year. This will mark just his third bout since beating Roberto Valenzuela Jr in a December 2022 eliminator, which kicked off a lengthy stretch of step-aside agreements with then-champ Jermell Charlo.
