Adam Booth, trainer of IBF no. 3 super welterweight Josh Kelly, recently told Sky Sports that he’d had “a couple of conversations” with promoter Kathy Duva about pitting Kelly against reigning champion Bakhram Murtazaliev. Now, Lance Pugmire reports that the bout could join Canelo Alvarez’s September 13th clash with Terence Crawford in Las Vegas.
I’m not entirely clear on how the IBF could get behind this; Murtazaliev (23-0, 17 KO) is on the clock to make a mandatory defense by October 19th, the one-year anniversary of his upset knockout of Tim Tszyu, and has a top contender in Erickson Lubin.
It would be particularly egregious considering Kelly’s (17-1-1, 9 KO) lack of qualifications. He’s exclusively stuck around the domestic scene since getting thumped by David Avanesyan in 2021, his only win of note a razor-thin majority decision over late replacement Ishmael Davis last September.
Davis went on to get beaten to a pulp by Serhii Bohachuk, for reference.
It just seems such a silly fight to make considering the number of actual killers lurking around the top of the division. Hopefully this is just an appetizer for a unification or a showdown with the rising “Boots” Ennis in the near future.
