For many people, me included, they have long wondered whether former undisputed light welterweight champion Kostya Tszyu (31-2, 25 KOs) will ever fight again. It’s been two years since Tszyu, 39, lost to Ricky Hatton, when Kostya’s trainer threw in the towel following the 11th round. The bout was incredibly close up to that point, though Kostya was clearly losing the fight. It’s odd, then, why he would choose not to fight anymore bouts after this fight, rather than continuing on and getting a rematch with Hatton and perhaps winning the title back. To be honest, Tszyu was insane to go to England and fight in front of 50,000 screaming Hatton fans, considering it was Tszyu who was the champion at the time of the bout.
To make matters worse, Kostya had to strip off a great deal of weight to make the light welterweight limit, and came into the fight looking badly weight drained. Even worse, however, was the start of the bout, which was in the early morning hours, something done to assist with broadcasting the fight to television viewers. Tszyu appeared badly tired as he entered the ring, and also haggard from the enormous weight loss. With all that, Tszyu still made it an incredibly close fight and it wasn’t until late in the fight that Hatton’s wrestling and uncalled fouls wore Tszyu down.
Why, then, didn’t Tszyu keep fighting? He still as of yet has announced his retirement, instead avoiding the subject altogether. A year ago, Tszyu reportedly made mention of a desire to fight Antonio Margarito, “If the money was right.” However, nothing ever came of that. Although choosing Margarito as his first fight after a long layoff, of course, wouldn’t be exactly the smartest thing for Tszyu to do, especially because of the fact that Margarito is a larger fighter than Kostya.
Since then, nothing has been heard of Tszyu, and for all practical purposes, he’s retired without ever announcing it. To be sure, he’s not going to get a big money offer for a fight, largely because of his inactivity and also because of the way he looked in his last fight. Hopefully, this isn’t what’s been holding him back all this time.