Tim Tszyu today posted on social media a message to fans, saying that he will return to be in big fights despite the loss of the IBF junior middleweight champion Bakhram Murtazaliev (23-0, 17 KOs) to a third round KO last. Saturday night in Orlando, Florida.
Tszyu says he will seek answers from his team about what went wrong in his loss to Murtazaliev. Tim’s defense failed him in that fight, and he made a mistake by continuing to attack Murtazaliev instead of boxing after the initial knockdown.
When explaining what happened, Tszyu (24-2, 17 KOs) says he was caught with a punch and couldn’t recover from it. He kept getting up, but he wasn’t going to work.
Murtazaliev knocked out former WBO 154-lb champion Tszyu initially with a left hook during an exchange in the second round. That’s where things fell apart for the 29-year-old Tszyu as he never recovered from that blow. What chance did Tszyu have to come back, he threw it going to the attack and tried to slug with Murtazaliev.
“I got hit with a blow, and I couldn’t move forward. I kept getting up, but it wasn’t good enough,” said Tim Tszyu, reflecting on his loss to IBF junior middleweight champion Bakhram Murtazaliev on Saturday night in Orlando.
Tszyu and his team must make the right move for his next fight because he has now lost his last two contests. He lost to Sebastian Fundora earlier in the year via a 12-round split decision on March 30, but fans gave him a pass for that loss due to a bad blow he suffered in the second round.
The defeat against Murtazaliev was a different story. The IBF champion completely overwhelmed Tszyu, knocking him down four times in the fight before his corner threw in the towel in the third round.
“Congratulations to my opponent for the tremendous performance. Yes, let’s go ahead, regroup, and my team will come back,” said Tszyu. “Again, I’ll be back. I’ll still be in big battles soon, and I’ll find plenty of answers on my own, of course.
It will be very difficult for Tszyu to rebuild himself after the latest defeat because many of the top fighters in the 154-lb division will expose their flaws in the fight. Even younger fighters like Yoenis Tellez would benefit from what Murtazaliev exposed.
“The main thing my father (Kostya Tszyu) told me from a young age: “Never give up. If you shoot for the stars and crash and burn along the way, just keep going. I want to keep going and keep reaching for the stars,” Tim said.
Tszyu may need to swallow his pride and return to fighting at the domestic level in Australia instead of staying at the world level and continuing to suffer defeats. Here are some good options for Tszyu’s next fight: Michael Zerafa and Steve Spark.
