Tim Tszyu may have been written off by Saudi wannabe boxing dictator, Turki Alalshikh, be he still plans to, somehow, go on with his life.
The second generation former world champ is reportedly set to face defending IBF junior middleweight champ Bakhram Murtazaliev on October 19 at a still-be-announced venue in Florida, per Alan Dawson of World Boxing News.
Per Matthew Brown of Brunch Boxing, the title fight could be PBC’s long-awaited first non-PPV card under their deal with Amazon Prime.
Tszyu, the former WBO 154 lb. champ, lost his belt and a shot at winning the vacant WBC title this past March when he dropped a sloppy, bloody bout to late replacement Sebastion Fundora in the inaugural PBC on Prime pay-per-view card.
Originally set to face former welterweight champ Keith Thurman, an injury to Thurman saw Tszyu taking on the tall, awkward Fundora instead. A Fundora elbow early in the contest would open a nasty gash on Tszyu’s scalp, changing the direction of the fight entirely and leading to Fundora outworking the heavily-favored, blood-impaired Tszyu the rest of the way en route to a split decision.
After a proposed Vergil Ortiz Jr. clash on the August 3 Terence Crawford-Israil Madrimov Saudi card in Los Angeles was ruled out for medical reasons, Tszyu seemed to run afoul of bankroller Alalshikh, who has since said that he won’t work with the Australian.
Nonetheless, the 29-year-old is now back and ready to resume his career. Per Alan Dawson’s sources, Tszyu’s 3-fight plan involves Murtazaliev in October and, possibly, Erickson Lubin by the end of the year.
George Rose, chief executive of Tszyu’s promoter, No Limit Boxing, recently laid out his fighter’s immediate plans. He also made it clear that, while things are moving and churning at 154, all roads to top dog status must run through Tszyu.
“Right now, we’re going to fight for an IBF world title,” Rose said. “Terence Crawford doesn’t own that – that belongs to Bakhram Murtazaliev. So we’ll be fighting Bakhram and we’ll be winning that world title. Then we’ve got another piece of jewelery for Tim and we’ll be looking at what the next opportunities are for him.
“[Alalshikh is] pushing Terence Crawford’s case. Terence is his Riyadh Season ambassador and he wants what’s best for Terence Crawford.
“Terence Crawford has now got belts– he’s a guy we would love to talk to in the future but right now we’re focused on Bakhram and we’re getting that fight done. We want to win that belt and Terence Crawford is also focused on what opportunities lie for him in this division.”
“He’ll never be the king of the division if he doesn’t fight Tim Tszyu. Tim Tszyu is the king of the division.”
IBF champ Murtazaliev, meanwhile, hopes to play spoiler to all these plans. The Russia-born, California-based fighter won the vacant IBF belt in April of this year with an eleventh-round KO of Jack Culcay in Germany.
Paul Magno has over forty years of experience in and around the sport of boxing and has had his hand in everything from officiating to training. As a writer, his work has appeared on Yahoo Sports, Fox Sports, Fight Hype, Max Boxing, Boxing.com, Inside Fights, The Queensberry Rules, Overtime Heroics, Bleacher Report, and Premier Boxing Champions. He is currently the owner and managing editor or The Boxing Tribune. You can follow his Twitter/X account, @boxing_tribune, for breaking boxing news, analysis, and sometimes NSFW commentary. For Advertising, Inquiries, etc., send him an email here: paulmagno@theboxingtribune.com