The first free Amazon Prime Video boxing card is in advanced negotiations for an Oct. 19 debut, three boxing officials with knowledge of the card confirmed to BoxingScene on Wednesday.
The planned headline bout is former junior middleweight champion Tim Tszyu returning directly to a title fight in new IBF belt holder Bakhram Murtazaliev’s first title defense.
Australia’s wildly popular Tszyu (24-1, 17 KOs) is coming back from a horrific head cut suffered in his lost WBO-WBC title fight March 30 in Las Vegas, when Sebastian Fundora’s elbow opened up a prolific wound that bled profusely throughout a fight Fundora won by split decision.
If Tszyu had it his way, he would’ve returned to the ring Aug. 3 against Vergil Ortiz Jr., but the cut hadn’t healed in time.
Now that he’s recovered, Tszyu seeks to reunite with a 154-pound belt against Russia’s Murtazaliev (22-0, 16 KOs), an Oxnard, California-trained fighter who captured the vacant belt April 6 by venturing to Germany to meet native Jack Culcay, knocking out Culcay in the 11th round.
The Murtazaliev-Tszyu card is being pointed to Orlando’s Caribe Royale Resort, but the site deal is not finalized yet, sources said.
World Boxing News first reported Tszyu-Murtazaliev was headed to Oct. 19.
Tszyu is planning to be highly active, aiming to fight as often as four times a year – quite an undertaking in a division that ranks as perhaps the deepest in boxing.
Since Fundora also fights under the Premier Boxing Champions banner, he is Tszyu’s ideal opponent for 2025, but Fundora is currently in an uncertain window.
He’s obligated to fight new four-division champion Terence Crawford if the WBA 154-pound titleholder from Nebraska invokes his mandatory position on Fundora.
If Crawford instead opts for a lucrative date arranged by Saudi Arabia’s Turki Alalshikh against unbeaten WBC interim titleholder Ortiz, then Fundora is likely to fight former three-belt welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. as early as October.
The free Prime Video debut, accessible by SVOD (Subscription Video On Demand), follows at least four Prime Video pay-per-views.
Tszyu-Fundora was the first, followed by Saul “Canelo” Alvarez-Jaime Munguia in May, Gervonta “Tank” Davis-Frank Martin in June, Alvarez-Edgar Berlanga on Sept. 14 and perhaps Fundora-Spence, with another Davis pay-per-view expected in November.
The free Prime Video debut was supposed to also be at the Orlando resort, with former super middleweight titlist Caleb Plant set to meet Trevor McCumby this weekend, but McCumby was injured and the bout was shifted to the Alvarez-Berlanga card.
Read the full article here
