Tim Tszyu To Face Bakhram Murtazaliev For IBF Title On October 19

Tim Tszyu will fight IBF junior middleweight champion Bakhram Murtazaliev in the main event next month on October 19th in a non-PPV show at the Caribe Royale Resort in Orlando, Florida. The event will be shown live on PBC on Amazon Prime Video, starting at 8:00 p.m. ET/5:00 p.m. PT.

Tszyu is coming off a twelve-round split decision loss to Sebastian Fundora on March 30th. Tim had hoped for a rematch with the 6’6″ Fundora, but it has not happened for various reasons. Winning the IBF title from the unbeaten Murtazaliev (22-0, 16 KOs) should help Tszyu get that fight if Fundora holds onto his WBC and WBO titles.

Murtazaliev a Relative Unknown

Murtazaliev, 31, won the vacant IBF 154-lb title last April, stopping Jack Culcay by an 11th-round knockout in Germany. It’s hard to know how good Murtazaliev is because he hasn’t fought anyone notable during his 10-year professional career. The only two notable fighters he’s faced during all that time are the 38-year-old Culcay and Khiary Gray.

If victorious, the former WBO 154-lb champion Tszyu (24-1, 17 KOs) will have the chance to put himself in the mix for lucrative fights against junior middleweight champions Terence Crawford, Sebastian Fundora and Vergil Ortiz Jr.

The fight that Tszyu, 29, wants is a match against the Omaha, Nebraska native Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs), who suddenly has become the flavor of the week since his victory over Errol Spence last year. However, Crawford is still in a holding pattern, waiting to see if he can get a fight against Canelo Alvarez.

So, he probably won’t look in Tszyu’s direction for a unification fight at 154 unless His Excellency Turki Alalahik offers him a lot of money to take the risky fight.

Rose Confident in Tszyu’s Return

“There are very few fighters in the world that can endure what Tim went through in his last fight and come out bigger, better, and stronger than before,” said George Rose, CEO of No Limit Boxing. “Tim Tszyu is that guy. He lives to fight and has a warrior spirit that is completely unbreakable. You won’t want to miss this. He is about to remind everyone why he is the best 154-pounder in the world on October 19.”