This is the biggest fight of Bakram Murtazaliev's career and will likely be his toughest considering he will face Germany's Jacques Kalkai for the vacant IBF junior middleweight title.
So how was Murtazaliev, the 31-year-old Russian candidate, going to react?
He made it even tougher.
“For me, it doesn't matter if I fly somewhere to fight in someone's backyard,” Murtazaliev said through translator Daniel Bagdasarov. “The most difficult thing was that they offered me the fight during Ramadan and I had to continue fasting. So I was fasting all day and only training at night. I wasn't able to be 100 percent because I was also fasting and the schedule was very demanding.
How hard is it? As Bagdasarov explains, sacrifices are tough enough for any Muslim during Ramadan. If that Muslim is a top-level professional boxer with a big fight coming up, the difficulty increases tenfold.
“From about 8 a.m. to about 8 p.m., you can't have water or food,” Murtazaliev said. “Every day it changes up a little bit. So I can only eat at night. What we used to do was training sessions would be around 9:30pm or 10pm for him, and we would train until midnight and then… [I] Sleep for 2-3 hours.after that [I’ll] Wake up, run, eat, and go back to sleep.So [I] I did two training sessions almost back to back. After the road construction is completed, [I] I fell asleep again and woke up in the middle of the day with no food or water. And in the evening, [I eat and go] Back to training. ”
You look very tired. In order to survive, it had to be worse. But Murtazaliev had no other choice. He had a coveted title fight in his hands and wasn't going to let it pass. And he was going to prepare for it without abandoning one of the pillars of his faith.
“It's very simple,” Murtazaliev said. “For me, number one is my faith, then my family, friends, and work. Boxing is my job. I was created by God, so I have to live by God's rules.”
Regardless of what you believe, we must respect such discipline in a time when it is sorely lacking.
“I accomplished what I accomplished because it's in me,” he said. “There are so many bad temptations in today's world. We live in scary times, but the rules I follow and the beliefs I have have allowed me to be where I am today.”
In case you haven't guessed already, Murtazaliev is currently the IBF Junior Middleweight World Champion. On April 6th, he knocked out Kurkai in 11 rounds in one of the better fights of the first half of 2024. And it was the beginning of a whole new chapter for the 22-0 (16 KOs) Grozny native Murtazaliev.
Murtazaliev has recently been living in Southern California, but has returned to Russia to see his parents and get some R&R before returning to work.
“everyone [at home] I was so excited. I live and train in the US, but I already have good friends there, so the only thing I miss is my parents,'' he said of his return to Russia.
But can you find good Russian food in California?
“California has good food, but my mother's cooking is second to none,” Murtazaliev said with a laugh, and we understand that. The only problem now is making sure his cooking doesn't make him a heavyweight. Because at 154 pounds, he has a lot of great matchups. And he wants them all – just give the date and location.
“I have a manager, Egis Klimas, and Roma has a coach.” [Kalantaryan]there is a promoter [Main Events]And I think they need to decide who I need to fight,” he said. “They need to do their job. My job is to train, prepare and avoid injuries. If you ask me, personally of course I want to fight the big names. Boxing. I want to fight against players who have left their mark on history. [Errol] Spence, who just went up to 154, etc. [Sebastian] Fundora won two world titles. So, as far as I'm concerned, of course I want to fight some of the big names that will make boxing history. But at the same time, I have a team and they have to decide who I'm going to play next. ”
Because it's the right thing to do, I reminded him of an Instagram post that included a clip from the movie and the caption, “Dream big.”
What is your big dream?
“My dreams have nothing to do with this world,” Murtazaliev said. “I had a goal and my goal was to become world champion and I was able to achieve that. And now my goal is to win more titles, unified titles. . I waited for a title fight for four years. That didn't happen. So I fought for the title at the end. Therefore, my goal is to fight to unify the title and leave a good name in the history of boxing. .”