Bakhram Murtazaliev and Tim Tszyu are reportedly in advanced talks to fight on Amazon Prime non-PPV on October 19th in Orlando, Florida.
The news of Murtazaliev (22-0, 16 KOs) and former WBO junior middleweight champion Tszyu (24-1, 17 KOs) was reported by Boxingsence. It would be Tszyu’s first fight back since losing his WBO 154-lb belt against Sebastian Fundora on March 30th, and it’ll give him a chance to redeem himself.
Interestingly, Tszyu has chosen to go in the direction of the IBF title against the obscure champion Murtazaliev rather than pursue an immediate fight against the big dog, Terence Crawford, or a fast rematch against ‘The Towering Inferno’ Fundora.
Some fans view this move as a case of Tszyu not feeling up to the task of facing those guys after his loss to the 6’6″ Fundora last March, and you can’t blame him. It was a bad defeat and a lot for him to recover mentally from.
Tszyu’s promoter, George Rose, is confident he’ll do the job on Murtazaliev and then move on to fights against potentially Erickson Lubin, a rematch with Fundora, and the grand prize, WBA champion Terence Crawford.
That’s where the money comes in for Tszyu, 29 because Crawford has become a mini-PPV attraction. Crawford is the star of the 154-lb division right now, and Tszyu needs to come into the big bucks.
Murtazaliev, a native of Russia, recently beat his best 38-year-old Jack Culcay by an 11th-round knockout last April to capture the vacant International Boxing Federation junior middleweight title in Falkensee, Germany.
Before that, Murtazaliev had been facing little-known opposition for his entire 10-year professional career and going nowhere due to the poor opposition he’d been facing.
Given his inexperience against top-level fighters, it’s difficult to predict how Murtazaliev will do against Tszyu. When the best name on your 10-year resume is 38-year-old Jack Culcay, that’s not the ideal situation for going up against a slugger like Tszyu.
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