Bakhram Murtazaliev broke his hand a week before fighting Tim Tszyu

Bakhram Murtazaliev’s demolition job of Tim Tszyu appears to be even more impressive once you assess beyond his performance at face value. 

The IBF junior-middleweight champion (23-0, 17 KOs) knocked down Tszyu three times in the second round and once more in the third, forcing the Australian’s corner to throw in the towel.

All four of the knockdowns came courtesy of Murtazaliev’s monstrous left hook. Days after the fight, it has been revealed why the Russian was leaning on his crushing left early and often during the first defense of his 154lbs title.

Murtazaliev’s head coach Roma Kalantaryan told BoxingScene that Murtazaliev broke his right hand during his final sparring session on October 11, and essentially entered the fight as a one-handed fighter. 

“Our game plan was at 50 per cent going into the fight because Bakhram didn’t have his right hand,” Kalantaryan told BoxingScene. “Bakhram’s knuckle around his pinky was gone. You couldn’t see the knuckle. We were icing his hand all week but he didn’t want to cancel the fight even though he had a broken hand. We didn’t tell anyone. I told him ‘Don’t throw your right hand unless you really have to’. So we focused on throwing more open right hooks instead of straight rights, only when needed. I’m sure Tszyu was expecting us to throw more right hands.” 

Kalantaryan said Murtazaliev didn’t throw a single right hand after suffering the injury until he started warming up in the dressing room on fight night.

Kalantaryan has previously trained Vanes Martirosyan and Alexander Besputin, and works with the number-one ranked UFC lightweight fighter Arman Tsarukyan from the KD MMA gym in Glendale, California. Kalantaryan, who has coached Murtazaliev for three fights – including his title-clinching win against Jack Culcay in May – said that they were preparing for a flat-footed pressure fighter in Tszyu who was looking to counter-punch. 

“Our plan was to test his power in the first round and test his shots with aggression,” said Kalantaryan. “Bakhram came back to the corner after the first round and said, ‘Coach, I do not feel any of his punches’. 

“I told him to just make sure to see the punches coming. He was able to change the fight with his one-punch power. It doesn’t matter how hard the fight is. If Bakhram lands, it’s fireworks. 

“A lot of people are talking about how easy the fight was, but they don’t know the hard work and preparation we went through over the last 10 weeks. We were prepared for a hard war, but the final battle was easy.”

The future looks incredibly bright in a competitive weight division for the Egis Klimas-managed, Kathy Duva-promoted Murtazaliev. 

The 31 year old from Grozny, Russia is based in Los Angeles, and looking to unify titles in the division against fellow crownholders Terence Crawford and Sebastian Fundora.  

Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer and broadcast reporter whose work has appeared on ESPN, Fox Sports, USA Today, The Guardian, Newsweek, Men’s Health, NFL.com, Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Ring Magazine and more. He has been writing for BoxingScene since 2018. Manouk is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube, through email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com or via www.ManoukAkopyan.com.