Tim Tszyu recently became candid about his knockout loss to Bakhram Murtazaliev. Tszyu acknowledged his poor performance and vowed to bounce back stronger.
Tszyu took on Murtazaliev for the IBF junior middleweight title this past Saturday at the Caribe Royal Hotel in Orlando, Florida. Tszyu came into the fight off a split decision loss to Sebastian Fundora earlier this year, his first setback in professional boxing.
Meanwhile, Murtazaliev was coming off an 11th-round knockout victory over Jack Culcay, which earned him the vacant IBF belt.
Murtazaliev exposed Tszyu's defensive vulnerabilities and landed three knockdowns in the second round, setting the tone for an exciting contest. The Russian then secured another knockdown in the third round of the bout.
As the 31-year-old proceeded to dominate Tszyu, the Australian's team tossed the towel in the ring, and the fight was called off by the referee in the third round as they did not want the 29-year-old to sustain any further damage.
Check out the post below (via Combat Sports Today on X):
Following his loss, Tszyu, accompanied by manager Glen Jennings and promoter Matt Rose, was questioned about his thoughts during his post-fight interview. In response, he said:
''What the fu*k just happened? Like what did I get hit with? Couldn’t regroup and I don’t know man, just sh*t doesn’t go your way and you just have to bounce back you know. I was positive after the [Sebastian] Fundora but I got to find more answers with this one you know like this didn’t go according to script. It felt a little bit different. I felt unbelievable, had a great prep. He [Murtazaliev] got me man and he was the better man on this night, and we live and we learn.''
Check out Tim Tszyu's comments below (via Main Event on X):