Raymond Muratalla says he’s going to push for a unification fight against WBO lightweight champion Keyshawn Davis after he picks up the IBF 135-lb belt.
#4 Muratalla (22-0, 17 KOs) is fighting #2 Zaur Abdullaev (20-1, 12 KOs) for the IBF interim lightweight title on May 10th at the Pechanga Arena in San Diego, California. The event will be shown live on ESPN and ESPN+, starting at 10:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. PT.
The winner of the Muratalla-Abdullaev fight will either be upgraded to full IBF lightweight champion status or they’ll fight for the belt against current champion Vasily Lomachenko.
Loma has been out of action due to a back injury since capturing the vacant IBF title on May 12th last year against George Kambosos Jr. Lomachenko has until October 8th to defend his IBF title against the winner of the Muratalla vs. Abdullaev fight.
Keyshawn Next?
Muratalla is expected to defeat Abdullaev to put himself in a position to be upgraded to IBF lightweight champion or fight Lomachenko. If he gets his hands on the IBF title, he’s going to push for Top Rank to make the unification fight with WBO champ Keyshawn Davis. They promote both fighters. So, it should be an easy fight to make.
“The one that makes most sense is Keyshawn [Davis]. He’s with Top Rank, and I’m with Top Rank. I think that’ll be the one that will most likely happen,” said light welterweight contender Raymond Muratalla to Sean Zittel about a fight he wants for a world title.
Keyshawn would make sense if he and Top Rank were willing to put him in with a risky opponent for a change. All you got to do is look at the kind of opponents that he’s been fighting since he turned pro in 2021 to know that he’s going the manufactured route to artificial stardom. That’s when a fighter is matched against tomato cans to build a record to turn them into a PPV pseudo-star. Keyshawn isn’t going to break from that carefully guided path to fight Muratalla and lose.
“I think that’s the one that will most likely happen because he’s with Top Rank. Gervonta and Shakur, they already got plans. I think it’s the one that makes the most sense, and it’s the one that’s most likely to happen,” said Muratalla.
It’s highly unlikely that Muratalla will get a chance to fight Keyshawn for his WBO lightweight title because he’s being matched carefully by Top Rank. He’s not fought anyone yet who had a remote chance of beating him. The guys that could give Keyshawn problems, Andy Cruz, Muratalla, and Abdullah Mason, he’s shown no interest in fighting. He’s quickly outgrowing the 135-lb division, and he could be moving up to 140 by next year.
Davis is holding out hope that he can stay at lightweight long enough to get a big mega-fight against Gervonta Davis, but that won’t happen without Turki Alalshikh taking an interest in financing it. In a positive sign, Turki made Keyshawn one of his brand ambassadors for his Ring Magazine this week. If he wants to see Keyshawn fight a live body like Andy Cruz or Muratalla before he moves up to light welterweight, he can do so. Without him, Keyshawn won’t voluntarily fight Muratalla or Cruz because of the high probability of getting exposed.
Farmer Fight
“I think I should have went in there and bullied him,” said Muratalla, regretting not fighting more aggressively in his fight against Tevin Farmer last year on July 13th. “I think I was thinking too much. That’s all it was. I could have done a lot more.”
Muratalla was focusing on throwing single shots, believing he could knock out Farmer using that approach. That was the wrong style to use against the former IBF super featherweight champion because he has a good chin, and he was making him miss.
“They were telling me in my corner to just let my hands go, and that’s all I needed to do. You saw in the last round what happened when I let my hands go [Muratalla hurt Farmer]. I was trying to find a big shot to hurt him, and that was probably a mistake I made, too, just looking for a big shot,” said Muratalla.
In Raymond’s fight against Farmer, he didn’t go after him with nonstop combinations until the tenth round, and he came close to knocking him out. However, if Muratalla were to fight Farmer again, there’s no guarantee that he would have success by using a high-output style because he’s coming off of back-to-back fights against William Zepeda. Tevin has figured out how to neutralize output by using a lot of holding and moving.
“There are a lot of skills that I haven’t shown yet,” said Muratalla, talking about his upcoming fight against Zaur Abdullaev on May 10th in San Diego, California. “I can’t wait to show the world the kind of skills that I actually got. I do think he’s going to come to fight, and I’m going to be 100% ready for that. He’s not just there.
“100%. I think having a belt puts my name up with theirs,” said Muratalla when asked if having a world title will be his bargaining “chip” to getting the bigger fights that he wants. They can’t avoid it anymore. So, I’m definitely going to be callnig for those shots if everything goes well.”
Last Updated on 04/17/2025
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