IBF junior middleweight champion Bakrahm Murtazaliev stopped Tim Tzyui in devastating fashion in the main event of Friday night’s PBC card on Amazon Prime. It was a spectacular showing for the 31-year old originally from Russia, as Tzyu’s come-forward style was perfectly made for him.
The Murtzaliev – Tzyu bout headlined the three televised fights on Amazon Prime, with one poor judging performance the only drawback of the event. All three fights featured plenty of action and the presentation was as good as we can expect from boxing telecasts these days. No major complaints.
BAKRAHM MURTAZALIEV KO3 TIM TZYU
Bakrahm Murtazaliev (23-0, 17 KOs) showed devastating power with both hands in stopping former champion Tim Tzyu (24-2, 17 KOs) in three rounds on Friday night in Orlando, FL. Tzyu was down three times in round two and once in round three. As Murtazaliev was pouring it on, Tzyu’s corner threw in the towel.
Official time of the stoppage was 1:55 of round 3.
They traded from the opening bell with both landing heavy shots in an action-packed first round. Murtazaliev turned the tide with a big left hand that sent Tzyu down about a minute into the second round. The challenger was badly hurt and he managed to survive for about another minute before going down again, wobbly and shaken with about a minute left in the round.
The third knockdown happened just before the bell to end round two and Tzyu mercifully made it back to his corner.
Round three started with more exchanges, as Tzyu looked to be back in the game, but another big left hand sent him down hard with his eyes wide open in a dazed look. He got back up but Murtazaliev was all over him and in the process of sending him down again when the towel was thrown in by Tzyu’s corner.
Any Tim Tzyu fight is a likely fight-of-the-year candidate and he has fared well against lesser competition that Bakrahm Murtazaliev. But the inability to avoid power shots from a guy with dynamite in both hands puts Tzyu in a desperate position. His only defense is to come forward and fire his own big shots in an effort to turn the tide.
Tonight, that left him firmly in Murtazaliev’s wheelhouse. The results were devastating.
YOENIS TELLEZ KO7 JOHAN GONZALEZ
Super welterweight Yoenis Tellez (9-0, 7 KOs) stayed unbeaten with an impressive 7th round stoppage of veteran Johan Gonzalez (35-4, 34 KOs). Tellez came out cautiously against the fast-starting Gonzalez but turned up the heat as the rounds moved on.
Switching from southpaw to orthodox and back, Tellez flashed fast hands with good power that turned the fight against his determined opponent. Gonzalez was down in the sixth and twice in the seventh, prompting the stoppage. Official time was 1:57 of round seven.
ENDRY SAAVEDRA, CESAR MATEO TAPIA MD10
In the opening bout of PBC on Amazon Prime, middleweights Cesar Mateo Tapia and Endry Saavedra fought a thrilling, bloody 10-round battle that was scored a majority draw. Saavedra (16 -1-1, 13 KOs) scored three knockdowns and clearly did enough to win, but the judges went with 93-93, 93-93 and 94-92 Saavedra. Tapia (16-0-1, 10 KOs) scored a knockdown of his own, but was also cut under the right eye, which swelled shut.
A banger of a fight, Saavedra deserved the win. Let’s see how the rest of the card plays out.
