Fighting to feed his family, Bakhram Murtazaliev has warned Tim Tszyu he will be “minimum five times better” than when he snared the IBF super-welterweight belt while fasting.
Murtazaliev will place his strap on the line in Florida on Sunday after the International Boxing Federation offered Tszyu the opportunity of a lifetime to regain a world title following his controversial and bloody loss to Sebastian Fundora in March.
Less than a month after Tszyu relinquished his WBO belt to Fundora after fighting 10 rounds blinded by a gaping head wound – courtesy of his American opponent’s elbow – Murtazaliev finally became a world champ of his own with a courageous victory over Jack Culcay.
Harsh critics claimed the Russian looked slow and cumbersome before stopping Culcay with a big left in the 11th round.
But the devout Muslim insists there were mitigating factors at play after being forced to take on Culcay, in the German’s homeland, during Ramadan.
“We were training at three in the morning,” Murtazaliev said on Thursday through a translator.
“We were training 12 midnight, you know, so I’m not even going to go there.
“What they did was very unfair. Thank God we got that fight.”
Asked how much better he would be this weekend at Caribe Royale resort, the unbeaten champion said it would be lights out for Tszyu if the Sydney challenger walked into one of his heavy rights.
“Minimum five times better than my last fight. I’m in better shape, better condition and everything is good,” the quietly spoken Murtazaliev said.
“If I connect, yeah, he’s going to be going down for sure.
“Why don’t we just see. You guys will see what’s going on then and all the conversations that we are having, all the stuff going through online, they will have all their answers.
“I’m very confident that I’m going to win this fight.”
While Team Tszyu is talking up a mega-money showdown with the likes of superstars Terence Crawford, Errol Spence and Jermell Charlo if, as they expect, their charge wins on Sunday, Murtazaliev’s motivations are more modest.
“I don’t want to become a big star. I just want to win this fight,” said the 31-year-old father-of-two Murtazaliev.
“Stars are in the sky. I’m just going to be regular person always on the earth and I just want to win the fight and keep my title.
“I have two kids and I want to have more. That’s a big motivation.”
Murtazaliev also addressed Tszyu’s claim that he was little more than a “step-aside” merchant after accepting money to avoid Charlo, more than once.
“This wasn’t by choice,” he said.
“If it’s by choice, yeah, I would feel offended but it was not by choice.
“I had to step aside because the guy was doing a unification bout. If there is unification, you have to step aside.
“This is boxing. It is a business.”
The Grozny-born, US-based journeyman has carved out his unbeaten 22-fight record, with 16 wins coming via knockout, after growing up idolising Kostya Tszyu.
But Murtazaliev laughed when asked how he’d feel when seeing Tszyu’s legendary father ringside on Sunday.
“I’m not going to fight him, so it doesn’t matter,” he said.
“What does it matter? It could be Sylvester Stallone, who cares?
“He (Kostya) is not going to fight. I’m only going to fight my opponent.
“So it doesn’t really matter who’s going to be there (watching). There could be Donald Trump.”
