Bakhram Murtazaliev stopped Tim Tszyu his first title defense, shocking many as he entered the ring as a huge underdog this past Saturday, October 19 at Caribe Royal in Orlando, Florida, live on Prime Video.
Bakhram accomplished this DESPITE breaking the knuckle on his right-hand pinky finger on the last day of sparring on Friday, October 11. They had a doctor check it out. After the fight was over, when head trainer Roman Kalantaryan revealed the injury, he said they decided not to cancel the fight because they were so sure that Bakhram would stop Tszyu anyway. “The guy is a monster!!” said Bakhram’s promoter Kathy Duva after hearing about this.
Bakhram applied serious pressure from the start. He knocked Tszyu down three times in round two and once again in round three, when the fight was stopped. The official time of the stoppage was 1:55 round three and the referee was Chris Young. The scores going into round three were 20-15 straight across.
Murtazaliev improved his record to 23-0, 17 KOs.
“The fight pretty much went the way I expected,” said Bakhram about the Tszyu fight. “I was thinking that he would probably stick around a little bit longer than three rounds. I had mentioned in interviews prior to the fight that I thought I would stop him, but I didn’t know when we would stop him. We did also prepare for twelve rounds.”
Regarding what is next, Bakhram said, “I don’t want to wait too long for another fight since I am thirty-one years old. I would love to unify the titles – so that would mean whoever comes first with another belt. Another option would be to go get a champion at middleweight. If that doesn’t work out, we will take anyone in the top ten, but again, first option is unification, under fair circumstances, and as long as the fight makes sense. I had been waiting three or four years to get the title shot. I eventually did get the chance at the world title but the circumstances surrounding that title fight were terrible. I had to train during Ramadan times (nighttime) and the fight and fight week activities were in the Berlin city limits, and they stuck us in a hotel way outside the city.”
Bakhram’s trainer Romo added, “Since his right hand was broke, he was using lots of left hooks, and not the right hand. That right hand is deadly and most of the time that’s how his knockouts come. The thing was, it was so close to the fight and camp was great and we didn’t want to have any excuses. That’s why we were throwing so many left hooks, which is how the knockout came.”
“We were very confident going into the fight,” said Hall of Fame Promoter Kathy Duva, CEO of Main Events. “The idea was to put pressure on right from the start, not letting up, thinking Tszyu may be tentative coming off his last fight, a loss. Bakhram showed that he is a real money fighter. He waited four years for a title shot. Had to go fight for that title in his opponents back yard, and against all odds, won by knockout. Then, in his first defense he shocked most by winning by stoppage. He was a 5-to-1 underdog in Germany and Tszyu was favored by 7-to-1 on Saturday. Bakhram will probably be an underdog against who he fights next, but we are very excited whoever that may be.”
– A 3 round beat down……….
The Culcay fight is a candidate for Fight of the Year while the Tszyu beating is a Performance of the Year candidate.
Tszyu should retire. He was done at the end of the first round. They should have stopped it at the end of round 1 like Nigel Benn vs Iran Barkley in 1990.
Every-time Tszyu dipped down to throw a left hook to the body, the left hook was there to hit him in the chin.
One time, Tszyu was dropped from a straight right followed by a jab to the side of his face. Tszyu was standing straight up that time (and trying to trade).
If Tszyu doesn’t retire, he has to give up on trying to dig left hooks to the body. He pretty much has to to be a a jab straightt right hands to body and head kind of guy. And just fight in Australia, New Zeland, maybe Canada. Tszyu won’t make it big in the US in 2025/26.
Don’t blame Tszyu’s dad as a distraction either. Kostya Tszyu was there for his pro debut and what should be his last fight.
Tszyu being stopped was all about lefts from his opponent. And if Tszyu fought Murtazaliev again one year from now (at 154 or 160), it would happen again.
Maybe Tszyu could train with him as a sparring NY partner and try to learn something, but fight him again??
What is Tim Tszyu going to do in boxing from the age of 30 to 33? He might as well stop taking punches, find other ways to make $ in Australia, help promote his brother’s career.
‘Tszyu should retire.’ Aren’t you overreacting?