Humble Bakhram Murtazaliev Retains IBA Title With A 5th Round Stoppage
Photo Credits To David Spagnolo/Main Events
New York, NY (March 6) – Bakhram Murtazaliev (12-0, 10 KOs) of Grozny, Russia extended his knockout streak to eight, stopping Kenneth McNeil (11-4, 8 KOs) of Birmingham, Alabama, in the first defense of the IBA Super Welterweight World Title he won at The Garden in November. Murtazaliev let out a roar of satisfaction as referee Danny Schiavone halted the contest at 1:08 of the fifth round.
“I imagined the fight would go a little bit differently,” said Murtazaliev. “My opponent didn’t fight, he was running all around, always running. With an opponent like this, it’s super hard to fight.” Trainer Abror Tursunpulatov had confidence his fighter would prevail. “We knew Bakhram was going to win by KO or TKO in the last rounds.”
“For all my team, Egis (Klimas), for Kathy Duva, for all the team, they helped me a lot. My goal is to make you happy, every fight,” added Murtazaliev.
McNeil had never been stopped before, giving Murtazaliev, 25, the most significant test of his career to date. It was the Russian’s third fight under both the Krusher Promotions and Main Events banners.
In a post-fight interview with cboxinginfo.com, a humble and very gracious Murtazaliev said through his interpreter “My goal is to be a world champion. I do not even think about being Sergey Kovalev, because he is on such a higher level.” Holding his left hand high above his head and his right-hand low near his stomach Murtazaliev moved his left hand first and said: “This is Kovalev.” He moved his right hand and said: “This is me.”
I look forward to seeing more of Murtazaliev.
