By Gary Todd: With less than four years as a professional fighter, and with a respectable amateur record of 33-1 to his famous name, Tim Tszyu has worked his way up, fighting to carve out a name for himself in the world of boxing. It couldn’t have been easy, having to live up to his father, Kostya, the hall of fame, unified world champion , and arguably the hardest punching super lightweight in the history of the sport. The name alone sent shivers down the spine of many of the top super lightweights around the world in a reign that lasted 10 years. A huge undertaking for the young man from Sydney
For the 25 year old Tim Tszyu, [ 16 [ 12 kos ] the only way for him was to keep winning and thus far, he has done that. With a good win over fellow Australian scrapper, Jeff Horn, under his belt , Tszyu has pretty much proved he is the best junior middleweight in Australia.
A defeat at the hands of Horn would have been career suicide and the pressure was on for him, to not only beat the former world champion, but to beat him up in his own backyard in front of 16,000 fans . Tszyu outboxed and out punched the puncher from Brisbane, making him look old and shot from the opening bell.
So where does Tszyu go from here? The short answer is, map out a strategic list of credible but beatable opponents in America, or the UK. My view is Tszyu is 3 fights away from a crack at the world title and i would say that his team should be going down the WBO track, chasing the Golden Boy fighter, Patrick Teixeira, [ 31 [22 kos]-1 ] for his championship belt. The Brazilian is arguably the most beatable of the current world champions. Here is a list of the top junior middleweights .
- Jermell Charlo 30-0 WBC champion
- Jeison Rosario 20-1-1 IBF – WBA champion.
- Liam Smith 29-2-1 experienced, 32 yr old and big at the weight.
- Brian Castano 16-0-1
- Erislandy Lara 26-3-3 southpaw
- Jarrett Hurd 24-1
- Julian Williams 27-2-1
- Tony Harrison 28-3
- Patrick Teixeira 31-1 WBO champion – southpaw
- Ericsson Lubin 22-1 southpaw.
- Jack Culcay 29-4 [ 13kos]
- Magomed Kurbonov. 20-[12 kos]
There is no question there is real talent, real speed and power, and real danger, ahead for Tszyu, a fight with any one of these guys at this early stage of his career would be a huge step up from the likes of Jeff Horn.
For me, i would be testing myself against the best fighters in the UK, and get some exposure over there, fighting Ted Cheeseman, Sam Eggington, Kell Brook, and then Liam Smith, and also European opportunities in Sergio Garcia and Kurbanov. Tough hard fights any way you look at it, but that is the way it has to be for him, moving forward. There has been talk of Tszyu’s people bringing over fighters to Australia , particularly Teixeira, but the WBO champion has to defend his title next , fighting Castano. Rosario is fighting shortly [ september 26th ] in a unification mega fight with Charlo and the winner will need to face the Cuban, Lara, so if Tszyu wants to stay busy, [ and he must ], his team has to either try and get boxers to come over to Australia, or they have to go and pick a fight with fighters in their own backyards. Why not bring over Curtis Stevens.? He has big fight experience, and he can talk the talk, and most importantly, he stopped Teixeira in 2016. The only man to do so.
Whatever they do and what path they decide to take in their search for greatness, there is definitely a few beasts in Tim Tszyu’s zoo that will need to be hunted, caught, and tamed and its not going to be easy.
Gary Todd has been involved in all aspects in the sport of boxing for over 30 years. He is the proud author of his international best selling books on boxing’s world champions, “Workouts From Boxing’s Greatest Champs” vol 1 and 2.