{"id":48859,"date":"2026-01-31T22:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T22:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=48859"},"modified":"2026-01-31T22:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T22:42:08","slug":"cx2ylz612v2oat_mediumrssat_campaignrss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2026\/01\/31\/cx2ylz612v2oat_mediumrssat_campaignrss\/","title":{"rendered":"Murtazaliev vs Kelly: Britain&#8217;s Josh Kelly wins IBF light-middleweight title"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">Britain&#8217;s Josh Kelly put on a slick and brave performance to beat Bakhram Murtazaliev and win the IBF light-middleweight title by majority decision in Newcastle.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It was a trademark Kelly display as he danced around the ring, displaying devastating speed and high ring IQ &#8211; knowing when to engage and when to get on his heels.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Both fighters hit the canvas with Murtazaliev going down in the fourth and Kelly in the ninth. The Briton went down a further two times late in the fight, but both were ruled as slips.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Two judges scored the bout 115-111 and 114-113 in Kelly&#8217;s favour with the other having it down as a 113-113 draw. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Murtazaliev looked to have got to grips with Kelly&#8217;s evasive style in the latter rounds, but the home fighter rallied in the last three minutes to end strongly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Kelly, who becomes Sunderland&#8217;s first world champion, sprinted to embrace trainer Adam Booth when the result was announced before grabbing the belt and raising it up to the 4,000-strong crowd.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It feels like a dream. I envisioned this,&#8221; Kelly told BBC Radio 5 Live.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I was praying a couple of days ago, envisioned the fight, and I had deja vu of the knockdown in the tenth round.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I had to concentrate &#8211; I feel overwhelmed. I need to take a second backstage to gather myself. I&#8217;m mentally exhausted.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Kelly takes the UK&#8217;s tally of reigning male world champions to six, alongside heavyweight Fabio Wardley, welterweight Lewis Crocker, super-featherweight Jazza Dickens, featherweight Nick Ball and light-welterweight Dalton Smith.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The 31-year-old extends his winning streak to eight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Earlier in the night, Elif Nur Turhan retained her IBF lightweight title with a split-decision win against Taylah Gentzen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">One judge scored it 97-93 for Australia&#8217;s Gentzen with the other two cards reading 98-92 and 96-94 in favour of the champion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#Murtazaliev #Kelly #Britains #Josh #Kelly #wins #IBF #lightmiddleweight #title<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Britain&#8217;s Josh Kelly put on a slick and brave performance to beat Bakhram Murtazaliev and win the IBF light-middleweight title&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48859"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48861,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48859\/revisions\/48861"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}