Coach Greg Hackett sees Terence Crawford breaking down IBF junior middleweight champion Bakhram Murtazaliev and knocking him out by the ninth round if the two fight in a unification.
Hackett points out that Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) isn’t Tim Tszyu, and it wouldn’t be the same situation for Murtazaliev (23-0, 17 KOs) as it was against him last Saturday night in his third-round knockout win in Orlando, Florida.
Murtazaliev With Too Many Advantages
Crawford has more experience, but Murtazaliev has too many advantages for the aging Omaha, Nebraska native to take on this killer. This is what Crawford would be up against if he chose to face Murtazaliev:
– Size
– Youth
– Power
– Reach
Crawford has been a part-time fighter for the last four years since 2020, and he couldn’t step into the ring with a devastating puncher like Murtazaliev without something bad happening to him. We saw Crawford getting hit a lot in his last fight by Israil Madrimov, and he was fortunate that he was facing a guy who didn’t throw a lot of punches.
If Crawford fights Murtazaliev, he’d going to be getting hit a lot more by shots equally as hard as the ones that knocked out Tim Tszyu.
The 37-year-old Crawford has not mentioned wanting to fight Murtazaliev, and he chose arguably less dangerous WBA junior middleweight champion Israil Madrimov in his recent debut at 154 on August 3rd. Some believe that Crawford strategically chose the 11-fight novice Madrimov rather than taking on the more dangerous threat, Murtazaliev.
“That would be a great fight for Terence Crawford. He is at that level. Bakhram, everybody is speaking about him now because of what he did to Tim Tszyu, but that’s what happens in boxing when you take fights,” said coach Greg Hackett to Fighthype when asked about a unification fight between WBA 154-lb champion Terence Crawford and IBF champ Bakhram Murtazaliev.
“Of course, we don’t know much about him, but from what I see, he has an up-and-down style. He’s got a great jab, right hand and hook, and that’s all you need in boxing is the good basics,” Hackett continued about Murtazaliev. “If you’ve got good basics, you can make things happen. Of course, Terence Crawford isn’t Tim Tszyu.”
Crawford’s Lack of Power
Crawford doesn’t possess the punching power that Tszyu brought to the table in his fight against Bakhram Murtazaliev, and he’s not going to want to mix it up with the tall 6’0″ IBF champion after what he saw what he did to Tim.
“Terence Crawford comes with a lot more elements than Tim Tszyu. So, I think he would give Bakhram a world of trouble just behind his jab alone. He’d take some time to break him down, stab him to the body. He’d work him out until the ninth round and then get him out. Bakhram got caught with some shots that he felt, but he stayed determined and stayed on the mission. I don’t think Bakhram could beat Terence Crawford,” said Hackett.
There’s little chance that Crawford would knock out Murtazaliev because he would need to get off his bike and stand in the pocket, and trade shots. He’s not going to do that. We saw how Crawford fought the potshot fighter Madrimov, and that was basically all jabs.
Crawford played it safe, not taking any chances but still eating countless right hands all night long. His face was badly marked up at the end of the fight, and he looked like the loser of the contest, which was razor close. Crawford barely won, winning by the scores 116-112, 115-113 and 115-113. Murtazaliev is a combination puncher with devasting power, and he wouldn’t throw occasional potshot right hands at Crawford the way that Madrimov did.
Crawford would likely never agree to fight Murtazaliev after watching what he did to Tszyu. He’s still and hoping the Saudis will fix him up for a retirement payday fight against Canelo Alvarez, which he doesn’t rate given that he’s never fought at 168 or even at 160. He’s not going to get in the ring with Murtazaliev and have him mess up his chances for a golden parachute send off.
