IBF junior middleweight champion Bakhram Murtazaliev and recently beaten former 154-lb champion Tim Tszyu both weighed in successfully on Friday at the official weigh-in for their 12-round headliner this Saturday night on October 19th on PBC on Prime Video at the Caribe Royale Resort in Orlando, Florida.
(Credit: Joseph Correa/Premier Boxing Champions)
Weights: Bakhram Murtazaliev 152.8 pounds, Tim Tszyu 153.4.
Tszyu (24-1, 17 KOs) is facing career oblivion in this fight because he’s coming off a bad loss to Sebastian Fundora on March 30th and is in a position where he cannot lose again if he’s to get the bigger money fights against the top dogs.
Tszyu Putting Up a False Front
All week long, Tszyu has been dismissive about Murtazaliev (22-0, 16 KOs), downplaying the threat that he poses for him on Saturday. Clearly, you could see in Tszyu’s face and behavior that he’s afraid. He knows how dangerous Murtazaliev is and the threat he poses to his career.
If Tszyu gets knocked out on Saturday night, he can permanently say goodbye to his dreams of fighting Terence Crawford, Jermell Charlo, and Errol Spence. Those three are on Tszyu’s wishlist for his next fight, as well as a rematch with Fundora.
“I like it for Tim, and I like it for boxing. The reason I like it for Tim is because I think it’s a fight that he’s going to win. I like it for boxing because I think it’s going to be action-packed,” said Shawn Porter to Jai McAllister about Saturday night’s fight between IBF junior middleweight champion Murtazaliev and Tszyu.
“When you have two foreign fighters fighting on American soil, you need something that will sell people for why they should watch this fight. I would tell everybody to watch this fight because it’s going to be action-packed.
“He boxes in this fight and sets up Bakhram. I think Tim is going to have some special timing on fight night,” Porter said.
It’s going to be near-impossible for Tszyu to change his fighting style for this fight to become a boxer against Murtazaliev because he’s too flat-footed and slow on his feet to pull that off. I don’t think Tszyu will even attempt to box. He doesn’t have the feet to do that, and even if he attempts that, Murtazaliev will cut off the ring and trap him in a war.
Porter’s prediction of Tszyu would have more weight if he hadn’t been wrong with his recent pick of Dmitry Bivol over Artur Beterbiev from last Saturday. He was wrong with that prediction, so it’s difficult to buy into him choosing Tszyu over Murtazaliev.
Given Porter’s history of getting it wrong with his predictions, the temptation is to go the other way and pick Murtazaliev as being the winner on Saturday night. He might knock Tszyu out if he’s as flat-footed and as easy to hit as he was in his loss to Sebastian Fundora on March 30th.
Tszyu resembled a walking punching bag with arms in that fight, and took a beating from the 6’6″ Fundora, losing a 12-round split decision.
“I don’t know if Tim is going to knock out Murtazaliev, but I do know that’s their plan for Tim. They want to knock Tim out,” said Porter.
It makes sense for Team Murtazaliev to be focusing on knocking out the more popular Tszyu because they’re the B-side for Saturday’s fight, and you got to believe that if it goes to the scorecards, there’s a good chance that if the fight is close, Tim will get the nod from the judges based on his popularity.
Murtazaliev is a knockout artist and the better puncher of the two. Tszyu has more power, but he only throws one punch at a time and doesn’t put his shots together like Murtazaliev, who is a more aggressive version of Dmitry Bivol.
Murtazaliev attacks his opponents relentlessly, going for the kill like a shark that smells blood in the water. There’s no one that fights like him in the 154-lb division. He’s lethal when he’s on the attack, and he knows that Tszyu is vulnerable prey after losing to Fundora and coming into this fight with his career on the line.
“I think they’re going to rely too much on their power, and it’s going to work against them,” said Porter about Murtazaliev.
Again, this sounds like another wrong bit of analysis for Porter, arguing that Murtazaliev’s aggressive focus will backfire on him rather than work in his favor against Tszyu.
Murtazaliev is going to attack Tszyu from the outset, raking him with shots and making him fight for survival. If Tszyu is still haunted by his loss to Fundora, he’s not going to last long inside the ring with this knockout artist.
Tszyu knows what he’s up against on Saturday, fighting for his career, and he’s going to have to show more ability than he ever has to have a chance against Murtazaliev. I don’t see Tszyu winning.
