Tim Tszyu proclaimed his conqueror IBF junior middleweight champion Bakhram Murtazaliev is no “The Man at 154” following his third-round TKO win over him on Saturday night on Amazon Prime Video at the Caribe Royale Resort in Orlando, Florida.
Tszyu has given Murtazaliev a big compliment by saying he’s “the man” in the 154-lb division because there are a handful of talented fighters who also have a lot of power.
Top Fighters at 154:
– Terence Crawford
– Sebastian Fundora
– Israil Madrimov
– Serhii Bohachuk
– Vergil Ortiz Jr.
For Murtazaliev to be “the man” at 154, he’ll need to beat some of those fighters who are willing to face him. You can probably scratch Crawford’s name off the list because he’s being very selective in who he faces.
In the post-fight interview, Murtazaliev said he wants to unify the junior middleweight division and then move up in weight. If he can quickly unify the division by beating WBC/WBO champion Sebastian Fundora and WBA champion Terence Crawford, he can move up to 160 in late 2025. Would they be willing to fight Murtazaliev after what they witnessed tonight? I doubt it.
Murtazaliev (23-0, 17 KOs) put in a dominant performance, flattening the former WBO junior middleweight champion Tszyu four times in the fight, which ended at 1:55 of the third when his corner threw in the towel.
Tszyu said after the fight that he didn’t know what hit him because he was caught with a left hook in the second round during an exchange and never recovered. He was out after the first knockdown and didn’t seem to have his wits about him.
He wasn’t thinking strategically with his decision to continue slugging. Murtazaliev believes that Tszyu didn’t understand what he was doing by choosing to stand in front of him, throwing power shots.
“Every time I step into the ring, I leave it all there,” said Tszyu. “Things didn’t go according to plan, and the better man won tonight. No excuses. After the first shot, things started not going according to plan. That’s part of boxing; you get hit, and reactions get slower. Bakhram is the man at 154.”
“Maybe he didn’t recover well. So, he didn’t understand what he was doing. He was so brave out there in those rounds. The referee gave him so many opportunities to fight. After [three] rounds, he fought so brave, and I give him real respect as a man,” said Murtzaliev to the media about Tszyu having fought bravely in defeat.
