Russian IBF 154 lbs champion Bakhram Murtazaliev has deservedly made his mark on the division following a 3rd-round stoppage victory over Australian star Tim Tszyu. Murtazaliev and Tszyu headlined a PBC card at the Caribe Royale in Orlando, Florida, on Saturday, October 19. As a result of his victory, Murtazalliev has retained his IBF title for the first time, while Tszyu will be going to the back of the line after missing out on acquiring a belt in his second consecutive world tiitle fight. The PBC event was jointly promoted by TGB Promotions and Australian outfit No Limit.
Tim Tszyu (24-2, 17 KO’s) has become the latest fighter to be tipped to widely win in a super welterweight (154 lbs) title challenge only to come up against an evenly-matched opponent in Bakhram Murtazaliev (23-0, 17 KO’s). Primarily, the oddsmakers are responsible for facilitating the entirely wrong perception, with Murtazaliev having gone into the match as a clear underdog versus Tszyu who was coming off a loss.
This perception might have trickled down to Tszyu himself, who similar to British heavyweight (200+ lbs) Anthony Joshua (28-4, 25 KO’s)―when he faced and lost to IBF champion Daniel Dubois (22-2, 21 KO’s) on September 30―seems to have neglected basic fundamentals in what may have been signs of overconfidence.
The match between Tszyu and Murtazaliev proved to be a severely hard match for Tszyu as a result, encapsulated by him shockingly getting knocked down thrice in the 2nd round as he proved unable to defend against Murtazaliev’s left hook. Notably, while Tszyu attempted to pressure Murtazaliev, his ineffective defense allowed the Russian fighter to counterattack with devastating effect.
The drama continued the very next round as Bakhram Murtazaliev again hit the mark again with a left hook [from the orthodox stance] that dropped Tim Tszyu for the fourth time of the match. As the last minute mark was steadily approaching, Tszyu was met with an onslaught of punches as Murtazaliev pressured him, eventually resulting in Tszyu’s corner throwing in the white towel―resulting in a technical knockout (TKO) win for Bakhram Murtazaliev. Murtazaliev retained his IBF 154 lbs title for the first time.
The result has now officially put Bakhram Murtazaliev on the map, identifying him as another strong candidate to potentially unify the division despite having flown under the radar prior to his win over Tim Tszyu. Murtazaliev won the IBF title in April, but as evident by the betting odds he was not regarded as a viable threat against Tszyu.
Murtazaliev’s victory changes things, however, and the next logical choice would be for him to face WBA and WBO interim 154 champion Terence Crawford (41-0, 31 KO’s) who recently stepped aside1 from a mandated bout with WBC and WBO champion Sebastian Fundora (21-1-1, 13 KO’s) to allow Fundora a voluntary title defense.
This leaves open the opportunity to see a unification fight between Crawford and Murtazaliev, depending on whether Crawford has interest in unifying.
- An agreement where a fighter [often a mandatory challenger] accepts compensation to temporarily forgo their sanctioning body-mandated bout, allowing another match to occur―often between the champion they were supposed to fight and another ranked contender. The sidelined boxer typically retains a future title shot or opportunity. ↩︎
