Murtazaliev, meanwhile, was at home in Russia patiently waiting to see what his next move would be.

Murtazaliev bulldozed through Tszyu by scoring a career-best third-round stoppage for the IBF 154-pound title in October 2024. The prolific performance immediately made Murtazaliev the perceived boogeyman of the division, and it took him 14 months to find a viable opponent in Kelly.

Kelly and Murtazaliev traded knockdowns in January, but it was Kelly who edged a majority decision win at home on British soil in what still stands as one of the leading upsets of the year.

Murtazaliev (23-1, 17 KOs), The Ring's No. 7-ranked 154-pounder, lost his leverage of having a title, but he's still positioned properly by holding the IBF's slot as the mandatory challenger for Kelly, who defended his title against Caoimhin Agyarko.

The IBF granted Kelly's request for the early mandatory defense against Agyarko and moved Murtazaliev as the next mandatory challenger in the division, an IBF spokesperson told The Ring.

Murtazaliev, a 33-year-old from Grozny, Russia, was supposed to face Brandon Adams in a title eliminator this summer after Murtazaliev's promoter, Kathy Duva of Main Events, secured a $361,000 purse bid in May. But Adams passed on the encounter because he was unwilling to fight in Russia.

"At this point, we are trying to arrange a fight for him in Russia for some time in October," Duva told The Ring. "It's against a solid, world-rated opponent that everybody is familiar with, if it's the guy we're hoping to get. Bakhram needs to stay active."

If Murtazaliev still held his IBF title, he'd be front and center at the negotiations table arranging title unification fights against junior middleweight champions Jaron Ennis and Sebastian Fundora. But that privilege is now carried by Kelly, who doesn't have to face an IBF mandatory challenger until April.

"Bakhram is here, but getting people to fight him is so hard," Duva said. "Kelly doesn't want to give him a rematch after we gave him his shot. Bakhram is a tough out for anybody. If any of these big names want to fight Bakhram, he's more than happy to.

"It's not like guys are lining up to fight him. Fighting Bakhram is a brutal fight for anybody, and that's why people don't want to fight him. Vergil Ortiz has passed on Bakram twice. Ortiz doesn't have anything lined up, so if he wants to fight next, we can do it … It's really frustrating. This sport has been very frustrating lately."