They say there’s no place like home. They also say America is the land of opportunity. Going into 2024, Bakhram Murtazaliev had put together a stellar boxing resume within the parameters of those old adages — and yet it wasn’t until he stepped outside of his comfort zone(s) that he took his career to the next level.

From his professional debut in 2014 through 2022, every one of Murtazaliev’s fights had taken place either in his native Russia, or in the United States, where he currently resides. During that time, he built a record of 21-0 with 15 knockouts. Then, in April 2024, Murtazaliev took a risk and traveled to Germany to face Jack Culcay for the vacant IBF light middleweight championship. The risk paid off, as Murtazaliev executed an 11th-round KO to claim his first world title.

Murtazaliev, a 31-year-old Muslim, took a chance by going to Germany for his first world title shot. Culcay is a German citizen who represented the country at the 2008 Olympics, and at the 2009 World Championships, where he won a gold medal. He was on his home soil in front of a crowd that would be rooting for him, and judges who might be swayed by that crowd. That’s always the potential downside for a combat sports athlete taking a fight on his opponent’s turf. Murtazaliev, however, wasn’t fazed by the German crowd and he didn’t allow the judges to determine the outcome. In the final few seconds of the penultimate round, he pummeled Culcay into a corner and dropped him. Culcay beat the 10-count, but he was wobbly on his legs and the referee waived the fight off.

In addition to the location-based hurdles, Murtazaliev also faced the physical and mental adversity of challenging for the title during Ramadan. In an article for Boxing Scene, he said through a translator, “For me, it’s no problem to fly somewhere to fight in somebody else’s backyard. What was the most difficult is, they offered me a fight during Ramadan and I had to keep fasting. So I was fasting throughout the day and I was only training at night, so I couldn’t be 100 percent myself because, again, I was fasting and my schedule was very hard.”

To understand the magnitude, consider that Amir Khan, the retired former world champion from England who is also Muslim, turned down opportunities for a career-defining and huge-payday fight with the legendary Floyd Mayweather Jr. because it would have been either scheduled during Ramadan or too close to Ramadan for Khan to train the way he wanted to. Training and competing during Ramadan is tough for any Muslim athlete, but those in combat sports fac as especially grueling scenario in which they’re likely cutting weight and already putting their body through the wringer.

One thing that helped Murtazaliev overcome and prevail against Culcay was his size advantage. Standing 6 feet tall, Murtazaliev towered over the 5-foot-7 Culcay. Murtazaliev is taller than all but two of The Ring magazine’s top-11 rated fighters in the 154-pound division. (Fourth-ranked Serhii Bohachuk from Ukraine matches Murtazaliev at 6 feet, while WBC and WBO champion Sebastian Fundora of the U.S. is a relative giant at 6-foot-6.)

The Ring has Murtazaliev ranked 10th in his weight class despite being a titleholder. Outside the IBF, none of the other major sanctioning bodies have him ranked in their top 15. Which means that even though Murtazaliev is a world champion, he has a lot more work to do to get the recognition and respect that champions typically get.

His next fight and first title defense has not yet been announced. Whether he takes a “stay-busy” fight against a clear underdog, or faces someone on his level, or decides to punch up and take on a big-name star, Murtazaliev has shown he’ll go wherever he needs to go and do whatever he needs to do to continue being successful.