Sergio Mora is blaming Tim Tszyu’s third-round TKO loss to IBF junior middleweight champion Bakhram Murtazaliev (23-0, 17 KOs) on “bad matchmaking” for taking on this killer last Saturday night in an ill-advised fight at the Caribe Royale Resort in Orlando, Florida.
The commentator and former 154-lb world champion ‘The Latin Snake’ More feels that Tszyu (24-2, 17 KOs) shouldn’t have chosen the little-known IBF belt-holder Murtazaliev in his first fight back after a mentally deflating 12-round split decision defeat against Sebastian Fundora earlier this year on March 30th. In Mora’s view, fighting Murtazaliev so soon after that defeat was a mistake.
Is Mora’s Attitude Cancerous for Boxing?
Mora’s play-it-safe attitude towards Tszyu’s career is off-putting to fans on social media, who are roasting him for commenting on his decision to challenge Murtazaliev. They feel the cherry-picking philosophy that Mora advises is what’s wrong with the sport and why boxing isn’t mainstream like the NFL and NBA. For boxing to grow, promoters and popular fighters have to be willing to take 50-50 fights.
It’s unclear if Mora would have favored Tszyu fighting a dangerous puncher like Murtazaliev at any point in his career, even under the ideal circumstances, because it would have been a bad business move. Murtazaliev isn’t well known by fans in the U.S. or Australia.
The only thing the Grozny, Russia-born Murtazaliev had to offer Tszyu was his IBF belt, which Tim wanted to use as a chess piece to improve his negotiating power to set up lucrative fights against Terence Crawford and Fundora.
You have to commend Tszyu for taking on this dangerous KO artist, Murtazaliev, because he showed courage in fighting a guy who had been avoided by the other top fighters at 154, including former undisputed champion Jermell Charlo.
Why didn’t the so-called best fighter in the junior middleweight champion, Terence Crawford, choose to fight Murtazaliev when he moved up to 154? The answer is obvious. He didn’t think he could win, so he chose a lesser champion, Israil Madrimov.
