By Allan Fox: Former WBC junior middleweight champion Tony Harrison has volunteered to “fill in” to replace injured undisputed champ Jermell Charlo to fight Tim Tszyu next. Tszyu has already been out of the ring for nine months. As such, it’s in his best interest to stay busy by fighting Harrison.
Tszyu, 28, has already said he wants to fight against the next mandatory challenger in the WBO’s rankings. As luck would have it, #3 Harrison (29-3-1, 21 KOs) is the next highest-ranked available contender in the WBO’s rankings, as he’s already volunteered to step in and replace the 32-year-old injured Charlo to battle Tszyu.
For Showtime, it would be great if Harrison were willing to fight Tszyu on January 28th to save the event at the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas.
Fans predict Tszyu will reject Harrison’s offer
On social media, boxing fans are already predicting that Tszyu will turn down the fight against Harrison for fear of losing to him and messing up his chance to challenge Jermell in the summer for his four belts.
It will look weak on the Australian Tszyu’s part if he rejects the offer from Harrison to fill in against him because this is the highest-ranking available contender in the WBO’s top 10.
If Tszyu wants to stay busy and give the boxing public a chance to compare his performance to that of Jermell, this would be a chance to do that. Harrison and Charlo fought twice, splitting the two fights at 1-1.
Whether Tszyu is brave enough to take the fight with Harrison on four weeks’ notice is the critical question. Tszyu was already in training to fight for the January 28th date, so he should be willing to fight Harrison.
It’s not as if right-handed Harrison fights from a different stance than Charlo, making it potentially problematic for Tszyu to fight him with four weeks of preparation for his style.
Somebody at Tim I’ll fill in for charlo so he ain’t gotta go on another 6 month layoff
— Tony Harrison (@Iamboxing) December 25, 2022
“I’m ready to take on the next mandatory challenger. I’ll be back for Charlo once he is ready and healed,” said Tszyu.
Charlo (35-1-1, 19 KOs) suffered a broken left hand in training for the defense next month on January 28th against his WBO mandatory Tszyu (21-0, 15 KOs) on Showtime.
The injury is bad enough to where Charlo will have his broken left hand in a cast for two months before he’s able to begin the slow process of rehabbing.