Bakhram Murtazaliev announced himself to the boxing world on Saturday when he stopped Tim Tszyu in Orlando.
Murtazaliev (23-0, 17 KOs), who entered the contest as a heavy underdog, successfully defended his IBF super welterweight title by halting the Aussie in three rounds after scoring four knockdowns.
Boxing fans who perhaps hadn’t seen the 31-year-old fight before were likely shocked with his demolition job, but it seems the performance was even more impressive than first thought.
Murtazaliev’s head trainer, Roma Kalantaryan, revealed Thursday to Boxing Scene that Murtazaliev entered the Tszyu bout with a broken right hand, an injury he sustained during his final sparring session eight days prior to fight night.
“Our game plan was at 50% going into the fight because Bakhram didn’t have his right hand,” Kalantaryan said. “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.”
The Russian instead capitalized on his lead hand, with three of his knockdowns stemming from left hooks. Tszyu decided to hold his feet and trade, leaving him defensively vulnerable and open to counters throughout the night.
Murtazaliev became the IBF mandatory in November 2019 with a wide decision win over Jorge Fortea. He didn’t get his title shot for more than four years though, as he instead chose to step aside for unification fights on four occasions and partake in tune-up bouts. Uncrowned’s Keith Idec reported that this earned Murtazaliev and his promoter Main Events close to $2 million in combined compensation packages.
After Jermell Charlo vacated his IBF title in late 2023, Murtazaliev finally got his chance against Germany’s Jack Culcay. Culcay built a wide lead through the first half of the fight, but Murtazaliev rallied to force an 11th-round stoppage to win the belt.
The Oxnard-based champion will now have a plethora of options for his career, and could be eyeing big-money unification fights with WBA champion Terence Crawford or WBC/WBO titlist Sebastian Fundora.
