Bakhram Murtazaliev's world title defence against Josh Kelly could land in America after fresh interest in the fight from the States.

As reported by The Ring last month, the IBF ordered their 154-pound champion Murtazaliev to defend his title against Kelly and gave the sides until September 19 to strike a deal.

It is understood that talks are progressing well between the champion's promoters, Main Events, and that of Kelly, Wasserman Boxing before the deadline but there is still no concrete agreement yet.

Both sides have suggested that, although the champion is a California-based Russian, it is a fight that would make sense in Kelly's home country of England.

Now Kalle Sauerland has told The Ring that it could land on American soil after an interesting offer presented itself during negotiations. He also confirmed that a purse bid currently looks unlikely despite the deadline looming.

"It is two weeks away but if the two sides are in positive talks then you can extend in order to complete the deal," Sauerland said. "I don't think a purse bid really favours either side anyway.

"It's in the interests of both sides to be as creative as possible to make the fight on the best platform possible. There's a lot of things going on in world boxing right now so we need to see where the big fight nights are going to be and when they are.

"We've had some positive discussions with a number of platforms and promoters so we can definitely get things to work. We are keen for the fight to happen in the autumn and, as Josh's promoters, we'd love it in the UK but at the same time there is also interest from the States for that fight to take place over there which is of interest to us too.

"I've worked with Kathy and the Duva family for a long, long time and they have another professional advisor on that side too because Egis Klimas is his advisor. We are all confident that we can come to an agreement on this being as big as it possible can for both guys."

Murtazaliev is currently 23-0 (17 KOs) but has not boxed since October when he crushed former WBO titleholder Tim Tszyu inside three rounds at Orlando's Caribe Royale.

That was the first defence of the title he won via an 11th-round stoppage of Jack Culcay in Falkensee, Germany six months earlier. They remain the 32-year-old's only two outings since December 2022.

Kelly meanwhile, has steadily worked his way up the IBF rankings with a seven-fight unbeaten run since he was beaten by David Avanesyan in February 2021. His last outing was the first-round blowout of Flavius Biea (24-2, 12 KOs) in Newcastle on June 6.

"There is a scarcity of British world champions on the men’s side right now," Sauerland added.

"I think this is the step up that Josh has been craving and I think for British boxing this is a really interesting fight."