In a big upset, IBF junior middleweight champion Bakhram Murtazaliev (23-0, 17 KOs) massacred Tim Tszyu (24-2, 17 KOs), knocking him out in the third round on Saturday night at the Caribe Royale Resort in Orlando, Florida.
Tszyu was knocked down three times in the 2nd round and once in round 3. Tszyu’s corner tossed in the towel when he was getting pounded by Murtazaliev in the third round. The time of the stoppage was at 1:55.
Undercard results:
– Unbeaten junior middleweight contender Yoenis Tellez (9-0, 7 KOs) stopped Johan Gonzalez (35-4, 33 KOs) in the seventh round in the chief support bout. The time of the stoppage was at 1:57 of the seventh.
Tellez got off to a slow start, taking a lot of shots from the 33-year-old Gonzalez in the first two rounds, but then took command of the contest in the third round. In the sixth round, the 24-year-old Cuba native Tellez knocked Gonzalez down with a right hand on the jaw.
Fortunately for Gonzalez, the knockdown came in the final seconds of the round. In round seven, Tellez knocked Gonzalez down with a left hook. You could tell that Gonzalez was badly hurt. He reached his feet at the count of eight to resume fighting. Tellez then finished Gonzalez off with a right hand that put him down for the second time in the round. The referee then waived it off.
– In an exciting contest, middleweight Mateo Tapia (17-0-1, 10 KOs) and Endry Saavedra (16-1-1, 13 KOs) battled to a 10-round majority draw. Saavedra knocked Tapia down three times. He was dropped twice in the third and once in round nine. In the fifth, Tapia sent Saavedra to the canvas with a booming right hand.
The scores
– 94-92 for Tapia
– 93-93
– 93-93
– Coming off a long two-year layoff, super bantamweight Gary Antonio Russell (20-1, 13 KOs) defeated Jaden Burnias (6–3, 4 KOs) by a fourth-round knockout.
– Heavyweight prospect Dainier Pero (9-0, 7 KOs) destroyed veteran Willie Jake, Jr. (11-6-2, 3 KOs) by a third-round knockout.
