Terence Crawford says Tim Tszyu took IBF junior middleweight champion Bakhram Murtazaliev (23-0, 17 KOs) lightly and focused on other fighters he wanted to face, paying the price by being knocked out in the third round in an upset loss last Saturday night to become in Orlando, Florida.
This fight was a 100% wipe out by Mutazaliev who was a Foreman-like over it with the blasted an overwhelmed Tszyu to the canvas three times in round 2 and once in round 3.
That came with Tszyu looking like a ragdoll, raked by a heavy bombardment of high-explosive punches in the third. Tszyu’s was gone and he was about to go down for a fifth time in the fight when his corner threw in the white towel of surrender.
Did Tszyu Murtazaliev take it lightly?
Apparently, Tszyu did not take Murtazaliev “lightly” at all. He trained hard for the fight and looked in better shape physically than in his previous fight against Sebastian Fundora last March. His problem was choosing to fight knockout artist Murtazaliev. It was a stupid move because he didn’t have the defense, mobility, speed and size to put up that kind of battle against this guy.
Crawford, who holds the WBA 154-lb title, states that Murtazaliev only “too strong” for former WBO champion Tszyu last night. He dropped him four times in the three-round slaughter in the Premier Boxing Champions card at the Caribe Royale Resort. Three takedowns came in the second, and Tszyu was quickly finished in round 3.
The way Mutazaliev looked last night, he would have beaten Crawford too. He is too strong, aggressive and has too much youth for the 37-year-old Omaha, Nebraska native, who barely won his last fight at 154 against Israil Madrimov last August. If it was Madrimov facing Crawford, he would be in the same boat as Tszyu right now, headed for retirement.
The extra time didn’t help
Crawford did not like the way Tszyu was “given time” before the start of the third round when the ring doctor examined him inside the ring. It seemed to take forever, but it didn’t change the outcome. Tszyu had gone too far at that point, and he probably could have been given an hour, but he still would have been knocked out by Bakhram.
Whatever chance Tszyu had to recover, he blew it by charging forward at the start of the round, throwing right-hand power shots, hoping to catch Murtazaliev with one of them to end the fight to turn
Murtazaliev took advantage of the punch drunk Tszyu by blasting him to the canvas with a vicious right hand to the head. That punch resembled the club right with which a young George Foreman knocked out Joe Frazier in their first fight in 1973.
Tszyu went down the same way. When Tszyu stood up, and looked at Murtaliev and his facial expression was pure shock. It was as if he did not know what had happened to him.
Murtazaliev then quickly rounded the dazed Tszyu, nailing him with powerful shots that sent him stumbling around the ring, staggering to his feet, about to topple over. Tszyu’s corner then wisely threw in the towel to save him before he could be axed by the mighty Murtazaliev.
Tszyu’s career implodes
The loss puts Tszyu’s career in a bad state as it will be almost impossible for him to come back from this defeat. What boxing fans don’t realize is that maybe Tszyu wasn’t that good to begin with.
Even before Tszyu’s loss to Fundora earlier this year on March 30, his career best wins came against flawed fighters such as Carlos Ocampo, Tony Harrison, Brian Mendoza, Terrell Gausha and Steve Spark. Those guys weren’t top fighters at the elite level at 154.
Tim thought he had an easy one. Took this guy lightly and worried about other fighters.
— Terence Crawford (@terencecrawford) October 20, 2024
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