{"id":183804,"date":"2025-10-07T19:48:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T19:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/183804\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T19:48:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T19:48:07","slug":"heavyweight-boxer-ends-11-year-layoff-to-send-opponent-tumbling-into-referee-in-brutal-ko","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/183804\/","title":{"rendered":"Heavyweight boxer ends 11-year layoff to send opponent tumbling into referee in brutal KO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Murad Khalidov didn’t look like a man coming off an 11-year hiatus as he blasted away Sergey Kuzmin inside the distance, live on talkSPORT. <\/p>\n

The unbeaten Russian heavyweight last donned the gloves in February 2014, but after a stint in bare-knuckle boxing, he returned to the ring on Monday in Saint Petersburg on an IBA Pro show.<\/p>\n

Heavyweight boxer ends 11-year layoff to send opponent tumbling into referee in brutal KO<\/p>\n

A comeback fight against amateur standout Kuzmin<\/a> (19-3) looked to be a daunting task on paper after such a lengthy period of inactivity.<\/p>\n

During his vested years, Kuzmin won a gold medal at the European Championship, while British boxing fans will remember him for retiring David Price<\/a> on his stool in 2018.<\/p>\n

His only defeats in the paid ranks came against highly-ranked foes Michael Hunter and Martin Bakole, with both of those bouts going the distance.<\/p>\n

Khalidov was able to go one better by taking the fight out of the hands of the judges in the seventh stanza.<\/p>\n

Following a brutal war of attrition, Khalidov rocked Kuzmin badly with a dynamite left hook.<\/p>\n

Sensing his moment, Khalidov closed the distance and followed up with a blistering flurry that sent his opponent tumbling into the referee before falling flat on his back.<\/p>\n

As he hit the canvas, the fight was waved off, extending Khalidov’s perfect record to 11-0.<\/p>\n

Speaking in the immediate aftermath, the victor called out two-time Olympic gold medallist Bakhodir Jalolov, British veteran Derek Chisora<\/a> and Congolese boogeyman Martin Bakole.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to fight Bakhodir Jalolov next,\u201d said Khalidov<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he doesn\u2019t cling to his \u20180\u2019 like a lifeline, he will accept this fight – and it won\u2019t be easy for him.<\/p>\n

\"Murad<\/a><\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

Khalidov knocked out Kuzmin in the seventh roundCredit: IBA PRO\"Murad<\/a><\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

In victory, Khalidov improves to 11-0Credit: IBA PRO<\/p>\n

\u201cI also want to fight Derek [Chisora] and [Martin] Bakole.<\/p>\n

\u201cGuys, I am ready. You are next. I want your head!\u201d<\/p>\n

Bakhodir Jalolov fails to impress on the undercard <\/p>\n

Jalolov (16-0) notched another win on the undercard against unheralded Russian Vitaly Kudukhov (7-4) in a performance that left a lot to be desired.<\/p>\n

The Uzbek southpaw, who won gold at Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024, has been hailed as a world champion in waiting<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, he visibly struggled with the physicality of Kudukhov on the inside and looked exhausted after three rounds.<\/p>\n

In the end, his pedigree shone through as he secured a hard-fought unanimous decision win.<\/p>\n

But his subpar display didn’t live up to the lofty expectations placed on his shoulders.<\/p>\n

Click this link to watch a full replay<\/a> of the IBA Pro Show on the talkSPORT Boxing YouTube channel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Murad Khalidov didn’t look like a man coming off an 11-year hiatus as he blasted away Sergey Kuzmin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[80326,2560,6102,81351,80327,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-183804","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-bakhodir-jalolov","9":"tag-boxing","10":"tag-boxing-news","11":"tag-murad-khalidov","12":"tag-sergey-kuzmin","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}