By Allan Fox: Tim Tszyu took care of Terrell Gausha last Saturday night, beating him by a 12 round unanimous decision in a fight more one-sided than the set of scores turned in by the three judges at the Armory in Minneapolis. The scores were 114-113, 116-111, 115-112.
Gausha (22-3-1, 11 KOs) started strong, knocking down the calm-looking Tszyu in the first round and landing well in the first quarter of the contest.
Eventually, Tszyu’s body attack and powerful headshots wore the 34-year-old Gausha down like a battery to the point where his offense was stagnant in the second half.
Tszyu won’t wait for the winner of the May 14th fight between 154-lb champions Jermell Charlo and Brian Castano if it means he needs to sit out of the ring for a prolonged period.
Tszyu (21-0, 15 KOs) said that IBF/WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo and WBO champion Brian Castano only fight once a year.
“What am I supposed to do, wait around for my boxing life to finish?” Tszyu said on him potentially needing to wait a while before he gets his title shot against the Charlo vs. Castano II winner.
“They fight once a year, and you have to stay active and make as much money as you can and improve day by day.”
If Tszyu is lucky, he’ll only need to wait to fight the winner of the Charlo vs. Castano 2 fight until October or November. That’s the best case scenario for Tszyu.
At worse, Tszyu will need to wait until next April or May, which would fit Jermell or Castano’s one-fight-per-year schedule. It might be better for Tszyu to stay busy while he’s waiting to eventually challenge the winner of the fight.
During the next 12 to 14 months that Tszyu is waiting, he can potentially fight two to three times. Good options for Tszyu to fight while he waits for Charlo or Castano:
- Erickson Lubin
- Sebastian Fundora
- Israil Madrimov
- Kell Brook
- Tony Harrison
- Carlos Adames
- Charles Conwell
- Liam Smith
- Magomed Kurbanov
- Bakhram Murtazaliev
- Patrick Teixeira
“I dug deep and showed something that core fighters are all about. You get up and keep fighting on,” said Tszyu.
“I wasn’t hurt. It was a flash knockdown. I wasn’t hurt at all,” said Tszyu about being knocked down in the first.
“I was a little too relaxed going in. I didn’t understand why I wasn’t too pumped, and I was too mellow. Usually, before my fights, I’m nervous,” said Tszyu.
It doesn’t matter if Tszyu says he wasn’t hurt from his first round knockdown.
What matters is that he was dropped cleanly by an old non-puncher in 34-year-old Gausha, and he was hit an awful lot by a guy that he should have taken out.
What the fight showed is that Tszyu doesn’t have the kind of power needed to stop guys with a decent chin. While Tszyu can punch, he doesn’t possess Julian Jackson type one-punch power required to blast out tough old guys that can take a punch, and know how to survive.
Since it’s unlikely Tszyu’s power will improve significantly in the near five years, he needs to focus on blocking shots and using upper body movement to avoid getting hit so much.
Tszyu’s famous father Kostya was also hittable, but he still possessed better defensive ability than what we saw from Tim last night. Tim needs to follow his father’s lead by learning how to lean away from shots.
“I think Castano wins on activity level. Charlo, his work rate isn’t high. He jabs moves around, and finds that perfect shot. Castano’s work rate is crackers,” said Tszyu in predicting the outcome of the May 14th undisputed clash between Jermell Charlo and Brian Castano.
