Former IBF junior middleweight champion Bakhram Murtazaliev will finally return on December 12 in Yekaterinburg, Russia, nearly 11 months after losing his belt to Josh Kelly under controversial circumstances.
Dan Rafael reports that Murtazaliev will compete on the Dmitry Bivol-Callum Smith undercard. His opponent has not been named.
The return gives Murtazaliev an opportunity to begin repairing the damage from his January 31 majority decision loss to Kelly in Newcastle, England. It also came with a painful lesson about defending a world title in the challenger’s home region.
Murtazaliev allowed Kelly to b
