“The meeting with Pulev is a good fight for Gassiev to return to the top” – Murtazaliev

Russian Murat Gassiev has a very good chance of defeating Bulgarian Kubrat Pulev with the right attitude. IBF junior middleweight champion Bakhram Murtazaliev shared this opinion with Match TV.

On December 12, in the main fight of the IBA.PRO 13 tournament in Dubai, Gassiev will meet with the regular WBA heavyweight champion Pulev. Since 2020, Gassiev has been competing in the heavy weight category. In the professional ring, the 31-year-old Russian won 32 victories and suffered two defeats. Gassiev previously held the WBA and IBF cruiserweight titles. He fought his last fight at the end of August in the USA, defeating American Jeremy Milton. The 44-year-old Pulev has 32 wins and three losses. The Bulgarian defeated Manuel Charra at the end of 2024 and won the regular WBA belt.

— Murat and I have known each other for a long time. Also in Chelyabinsk, around 2012 or 2013. This is a very good boxer. His entire career stalled after injuries after the fight with Usyk. He underwent several surgeries and had relapses. And so he is a very good, strong, strong and fast-hitting athlete. If he approaches the fight with Pulev with a cool head, then he shouldn’t have any problems. Pulev is an experienced and dangerous boxer, but he is 44 years old. I think this is a good fight for Murat to return to the top, to become a champion. This will be a very serious result,” Murtazaliev told Match TV.

Watch live broadcasts of IBA.PRO tournaments on the TV channels of the Match group, as well as on the websites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.