Bakhram Murtazaliev-Tim Tszyu: The Week That Was

Thursday, October 17

To be around Tim Tszyu 48 hours before his most important fight is to understand why the contest with Sebastian Fundora unfolded as it did.

It was at late notice in March when he agreed to fight Fundora, when an injury suffered by Keith Thurman – a significantly different nature of fighter – robbed him of the opponent for which he had long prepared. 

He then, against Fundora, fought on fearlessly from the second round with blood pouring so heavily from his scalp that his vision was affected – and there remain observers of what unfolded at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena who believe that he deserved to be awarded victory, instead of a split-decision defeat. 

Should Tszyu lose for the second time in succession on Saturday night, at Orlando’s Caribe Royale, there is little question that his career will require rebuilding. Yet for all of the pressure that that represents, and the heightened attention that complements the presence of his celebrated father Kostya, like only the most natural-born fighters he has the air of a warrior licking his lips.

It had long been tempting to consider Tszyu a “throwback”, such was his apparent willingness to fight any opponent and his relative disregard for his fame. When in the aftermath of the defeat by Fundora he agreed to fight Vergil Ortiz Jnr – he was ultimately prevented from doing so by the cut that required further healing – he enhanced that reputation, and he enhanced it still further when unlike so many of his contemporaries he was dismissive of Turki Alalshikh.

Tszyu not only cuts a confident, relaxed figure, on the eve of what is considered the most competitive of fights against a thankless opponent he has a glint in his eyes that betrays the extent to which he is relishing the imminent physical and psychological tests.

“When we step in the ring it’s all going to be a bit different,” he said from the top table of Thursday’s press conference. “That’s the best part about boxing – being taken by surprise. ‘He’s faster than I thought; he’s stronger than I thought; he’s harder than I thought.’ That’s all the questions that are going to be answered on Saturday night.”

If he were attempting to promote his next fight he’d have done so effectively, but Tszyu can be refreshingly reluctant to say much that he doesn’t believe.

When he first spoke, he declared he hadn’t prepared anything of significance to say and that he was “just winging it”, and unlike is increasingly common in the modern era insisted that beyond Saturday’s fight he and Bakhram Murtazaliev have no rivalry at all.

It has been suggested to BoxingScene that should he win, and emerge without another injury, he hopes to fight again as early as December, which ultimately speaks of a fighter determined to make up for lost time.

There, similarly, is little question that despite his compatriots Jai Opetaia, Liam Paro and Skye Nicolson possessing world titles, Tszyu remains Australian boxing’s leading figure. The broadcaster Fox’s dedication to covering his career has contributed to an official total (there will be others) of 27 journalists travelling from there to Orlando, Florida to cover his fight against an opponent who doesn’t speak English; as recently as Thursday his manager Glen Jennings described his father Kostya as “our greatest of all time”. 

If Tim Tszyu, often the driest of communicators, was far from desperate to exaggerate the picture surrounding Saturday’s contest, the reality is that he will regardless have known that promoters Premier Boxing Champions would attempt to sell the world a warped dream.

“He said you didn’t want the fight,” the host of Thursday’s press conference told Murtazaliev directly after Tszyu had finished answering one of his questions, when the reality was that Tszyu had said no such thing. Murtazaliev wouldn’t have known he was being misled – he was spoken to and responding via a translator – so he responded, and Tszyu then responded again, so that host’s goal was achieved.

Tom Brown of PBC was absent, and said to be arriving later on Thursday. But Kostya Tszyu’s presence sold Saturday’s fight better than Brown could have hoped to, even if more important to “The Thunder from Down Under” was supporting his son, and being reunited with Nikita – Tim’s younger brother – for the first time in 11 years.

At the conclusion of Thursday’s press conference Team Tszyu – Kostya included – sat down to take some personal photographs. Kostya briefly and lovingly massaged his son’s neck and upper back to ease his hidden tension as would only a retired fighter who knows what he is going through. He then got his own phone out to demand that others be taken, so that he had the same images for himself.

Friday, October 18

Bakhram Murtazaliev-Tim Tszyu outlasted the threat posed by Hurricane Milton to remain at Orlando’s Caribe Royale, but at Friday morning’s weigh-in – the “weigh-in” seen from 4pm in the afternoon was ceremonial – it was briefly threatened by inaccurate scales.

One set showed the fighters that they were on weight. The next – those being used to officially weigh them in – showed them to be in the region of half a pound over. One fighter even left in preparation to shift the additional weight he believed that he was carrying, until promoters Premier Boxing Champions investigated and realised that the chosen scales were inaccurate, and the 11 fights scheduled were gradually approved after the fighters successfully made weight.

The extent to which, on the occasion of Murtazaliev’s first defence of his IBF junior-middleweight title, Tszyu is the attraction was again demonstrated at the ceremonial weigh-in, also at the Caribe Royale. His value to Australian broadcaster Fox’s pay-per-view platform Main Event means that he and those around him have numerous media commitments that don’t apply to the non-English speaking Murtazaliev, of Russia, but even the host of Friday’s weigh-in announced Murtazaliev – who was born in Grozny but has relocated to Oxnard, California – as living in Glendale, which unlike Oxnard forms part of Los Angeles and is an hour away. 

Perhaps his manager, the influential Egis Klimas, has also detected that his fighter is being overlooked. Klimas, who also works with, among others, the great Oleksandr Usyk and Vasily Lomachenko, regularly translates on behalf of his fighters, but when doing so for Murtazaliev on stage at the same ceremonial weigh-in he made little effort to hide his disinterest. Perhaps he was distracted while wondering about the whereabouts of PBC’s still-absent Tom Brown.

“Why don’t you talk about [Sebastian] Fundora’s nose?” BoxingScene was asked by another of Murtazaliev’s team – acting as a considerably more willing translator for the Russian before he left – regarding Tszyu’s previous opponent. “It was smashed. It was bloody too. Why doesn’t no one talk about that?

“They were both bloody. We’re all talking about [Tszyu’s] blood. Why?

“This guy has better PR; better marketing. They wanna market him as fighting for another title after a loss. There we go. That’s good marketing.” 

That strength of how Tszyu is marketed has regardless been enhanced by the presence of his celebrated father Kostya. Kostya’s arrival in Orlando – after he travelled from Moscow, to Istanbul, to Miami and finally from Miami to be present on Thursday – meant that he saw Tim’s younger brother Nikita for the first time in 11 years. 

Tszyu’s separation from his first wife Natasha – the mother of Tim and Nikita – had tested the strength of their bond as a family, but in 2024 those bonds have been rebuilt to the extent that it was Natasha who persuaded Nikita to pay for Kostya’s flights to be in town, therefore also guaranteeing he would attend one of Tim’s fights for the first time since December 2016. 

“She was the one who convinced Nikita,” Main Events’ Ben Damon told BoxingScene. “They’re a remarkable family that’s had a lot of focus on them [in Australia] for a long, long time. They’ve handled it really well and you can see that before in the way that Tim’s conducting himself this week and the way that they’re all handling it.”

Saturday, October 19

Tim Tszyu and those around him had been sufficiently confident of victory over Bakhram Murtazaliev that he had planned to make his first defense of the IBF junior-middleweight title back home in Sydney between Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve.

Even had he won it would have been difficult for him to so quickly be as ready as he ought to be for a world-title contest, but perhaps it is that desire and conviction that will prove his greatest strength in the coming months and years.

Post-fight, in one of the corridors of Orlando’s Caribe Royale, one of his team could be overheard saying that he had abandoned their game plan – one that demanded that he attempt to stay out of harm’s way for the opening four rounds. 

It is tempting to conclude that a perfect storm contributed to the 29 year old fighting as he did. He appears to believe he deserved victory in March against Sebastian Fundora, when a cut in his scalp severely affected his vision and performance. If he continued to consider himself an undefeated fighter, and at the highest level after so significant an injury, an air of invincibility was perhaps inevitable. Post-fight, when he was typically unwilling to offer excuses, he stressed how fit and strong he had felt, enhancing the unmistakable confidence with which he had fought. His father Kostya was also ringside at one of his fights for the first time in eight years – perhaps there also existed a degree of emotion that affected his focus, or a sense of responsibility to impress a retired fighter again recently described as Australia’s greatest of all. 

The Caribe Royale is considerably smaller, and more isolated, than any of the casinos in Las Vegas that would host a world-title fight – encounters with those involved in Saturday’s promotion therefore happened day and night. BoxingScene overheard Bakhram Murtazaliev’s respected manager Egis Klimas acknowledge the threat posed to his fighter by Tszyu, before adding with a smile: “But I like it when my guy’s the underdog.”

Kostya’s presence in Orlando meant that he was seeing Tim’s younger brother Nikita for the first time in 11 years, and by the time of the non-televised undercard fight between Justin Vitoria and Diuhl Olguin, they were sat ringside, chatting and watching the evening unfold.

Vitoria-Olguin was shortly before the first non-pay-per-view fight of Premier Boxing Champions’ broadcast agreement with Amazon Prime. “Enjoy and be part of our telecast”, the master of ceremonies Jimmy Lennon Jnr said shortly before the broadcast started, essentially encouraging everyone to remain in their seats, without explaining that if they did it would look better on screen. “Join us; be part of our broadcast; the world is watching,” he concluded. The middleweights Cesar Mateo Tapia and Endry Saavedra then proceeded to fight to the most entertaining of majority draws. 

After Murtazaliev’s clinical dismantling of Tszyu, the Australian climbed through the ropes, and, unsurprisingly given the way he had conducted himself, turned to the champion to congratulate him again and to share a moment with a fellow fighter.

He had planned to catch a 7.50am flight out of Orlando, but at his post-fight press conference appeared to be concussed. Shortly after midnight there existed no plans for him to go to hospital – he was instead under observation at his villa by his team.

Murtazaliev’s co-promoter, Kathy Duva of Main Events, approached BoxingScene, post-fight, to reference a previous conversation. “It’s payback for Judah,” she said with noticeable warmth, remembering, as she had on Thursday, Kostya Tszyu’s memorably devastating stoppage of her former fighter Zab Judah in 2001.

She also quoted her late husband Dan on how odds exist to be upset, adding: “It was a brutal loss – I saw the signs.” She proceeded to explain that above all else she had recognised the risk for Tszyu of entering a title fight after March’s taxing defeat by Fundora; like others she also mentioned him checking his head for a cut after an early head clash, and also said that when Tszyu was ready to fight Vergil Ortiz Jnr she was concerned that for those same reasons Ortiz would defeat him before Murtazaliev could.

“I’m sure he’ll be fine,” she continued. “He seems like the nicest kid in the world. He seems like such a nice young man. He should take a good long rest though. I’ve seen fighters come back from losses like that and have great careers.”

Hindsight, as ever, remains unrivalled, but post-fight it was difficult not to reflect on the quiet air of confidence of Klimas – who manages several of the world’s finest fighters – and Duva, and the experience that guides their sense of timing and matchmaking abilities, and how damaging their expertise had proved to Tzsyu.