By Keith Idec

LAS VEGAS – Bakhram Murtazaliev’s handlers weren’t quite sure what they had before Saturday night.

They have a much better idea now.

The Russian middleweight prospect responded to a cut over his left eye by knocking down previously unbeaten Botisher Obidov three times on his way to scoring a second-round technical knockout at T-Mobile Arena. Murtazaliev’s impressive performance was one of six non-televised fights on the Sergey Kovalev-Andre Ward undercard.

Kovalev promotes Murtazaliev (7-0, 5 KOs), who, like Kovalev, is managed by Egis Klimas.

An accidental clash of heads caused the cut over Murtazaliev’s left eye early in the second round. Referee Vic Drakulich had the cut examined by a ringside physician, before bringing Murtazaliev and Obidov together again.

Shortly thereafter, the 23-year-old Murtazaliev floored Obidov with a flush left hook in the middle of the ring. Uzbekistan’s Obidov (6-1-1, 2 KOs) reached his feet, only to have Murtazaliev drop him twice more.

Drakulich stopped the bout at 2:52 of the second round.

The 24-year-old Obidov won a highly competitive first round on two of the three scorecards.

Another middleweight prospect managed by Klimas won his pro debut in the first fight on the 10-bout card.

Kazakhstan’s Meirim Nursultanov soundly defeated journeyman Henry Beckford (4-6, 1 KO), of Hempstead, N.Y., to win a six-round unanimous decision. Nursultanov, 23, won by the same score, 60-54, on all three scorecards.

Later Saturday night, junior welterweight prospect Sonny Fredrickson remained unbeaten by recording an eight-round unanimous decision against Gabriel Duluc. Fredrickson allowed Duluc to hit him too often, but landed more than enough of his own shots to win on all three scorecards (78-74, 78-74, 77-75).

The 22-year-old Fredrickson, of Toledo, Ohio, improved to 15-0. Boston’s Duluc slipped to 11-2.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.