By Kenneth Friedman: Highly ranked junior middleweight contender, Tim Tszyu will be taking a stay busy fight against New Zealand fighter Bowyn Morgan in his next contest in 2020.
The 25-year-old Tszyu (16-0, 12 KOs) is coming off of a career-best eighth-round knockout win over former WBO welterweight champion Jeff Horn last summer on August 26, Townsville, Australia.
According to Fox Sports News, this will be the 25-year-old Tszyu’s next opponent for 2020. It’s not the type of opponent that boxing fans wanted to see from Tszyu, but perhaps this is the best that his management could get for him during the pandemic.
The 31-year-old Morgan (21-1, 11 KOs) isn’t ranked in the top 15 at 154, and all of his wins during his six-year professional career have come against lower-level opposition in his native New Zealand.
Listed at 5’9 1/2″, Morgan looks very short, and it wouldn’t be surprising if his real height is closer to 5’6″. Against Tszyu, Morgan is going to look out of place, but that’s the whole idea.
This is a showcase type of fight for Tszyu, and it’s not meant to be competitive.
Tszyu should take care of Morgan in one or two rounds at best, and hopefully, there’s a good undercard paired with this mismatch.
Bowyn fell apart against Kris George
Morgan’s only career defeat came against Australian fighter Kris George (14-2, 8 KOs) in a third-round knockout defeat in 2016. That fight showed that Morgan wasn’t ready to step it up against quality fighters.
The Aussie George is known for his defeats at the hands of Can Xu [UD 10] in June 2015 and Josh Kelly [RTD 7] in 2018. George hasn’t fought since. But the fact that he was able to beat Morgan with ease with a blistering fast third-round TKO in July 2016 shows you his level or lack thereof.
Two of Morgan’s wins have come against journeyman Gunnar Jackson (29-13-4, 1 KOs) in 2016 and 2017.
It’s unclear why Morgan bothered to fight Jackson a second time after beating him decisively in the first fight match between them in 2016. It’s just an oddity and perhaps a poor use of Morgan’s career.
Bowyn should have moved on after that fight rather than wasting time revisiting another contest against the same journeyman.
Tszyu is ranked #2 WBO, #3 IBF, #7 WBA, #8 WBA at junior middleweight, and is in a position to challenge for a world title against champions Jermell Charlo and Patrick Teixeira (31-1, 22 KOs).
After Tszyu’s performance against Horn, it would be smart for him to go after WB 154-lb champion Teixeira rather than IBF/WBA/WBC champ Jermell Charlo (34-1, 18 KOs). At this point in Tszyk’s career, he doesn’t look ready to take on a puncher like Jermell.
Tim Tszyu needs more power at 154
Tszyu gets his way too much, and his power isn’t what it should be for him to compete against a fighter like the 30-year-old Charlo.
At 25, Tim Tszyu is right at the same stage of his career that his famous father, Kostya Tszyu, was when he was at the same age back in 1994. However, Kostya became a world champion in the next year in 1995 at age 26 in beating IBF light-welterweight champion Jake Rodriguez by a sixth-round knockout.
It’s highly unlikely that Tim Tszyu will match his father, Kostya, by becoming a world champion at 26 in 2021. That doesn’t seem likely at all unless he moves down in weight to 147.
Tszyu doesn’t pack enough power to give any of the top 154-pounders any trouble, and that’s something that probably won’t change in the future. By the time Kostya was 25, he already possessed excellent power and an awesome combination puncher.
In contrast, Tim has average power, and he doesn’t combinations like his dad. Tszyu is more of a one punch at a time type of fighter, which is fine as long as he’s facing lower-level opposition like Horn or Morgan. But for Tszyu to defeat the top guys at 154, he’ll need more punching power or a higher work rate.
It’s not probably realistic to assume that Tszyu will increase his power at this point in his career. If possible, he needs to move down to 147 and try his luck there because he’s probably not going to do well against any of the top contenders or champions at 154.
Should Tszyu move down to 147?
If Tszyu chooses to stay at junior-middleweight his entire career, he can be a good gate-keeper type of fighter and do well in fighting guys from Australia. But when it comes to Tszyu trying to compete with Charlo, Erislandy Lara, Jarrett Hurd, Julian Williams Israil Madrimov, it’s probably not going to end well for him.
Assuming Tszyu can make the weight at welterweight without being drained, he should give it a try. It would be well worth it to take the weight off to move down to 147.
You have to look at the guys that Tszyu will be competing with should he choose to stay at 154. Jermell Charlo is basically a middleweight that melts down to fight at 154. The 5’8 1/2″ Tszyu isn’t nearly as big as the 6’0″ Charlo or the 5’10” Julian Williams. Those are just two examples.
Guys like Jarrett Hurd, Erickson Lubin, and Teixeira are huge for the 154-lb division. Tszyu looks much smaller in comparison, and he doesn’t have the power to make up for his lack of size.