Shakur Stevenson predicts Tony Harrison defeats Tim Tszyu next Saturday in Sydney

By Boxing News - 03/05/2023 - Comments

By Adam Baskin: Shakur Stevenson predicts that Tony Harrison will defeat Tim Tszyu next Saturday night as long as he doesn’t get caught with a big shot in their battle on Showtime on March 11th at the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia. The Tszyu vs. Harrison event will be shown live on Showtime at 10:45 p.m. ET next Saturday night.

According to Stevenson, the 32-year-old ‘Super Bad’ Harrison is almost impossible to beat when he’s on his “A-game.

The problem with that comment from Shakur is Harrison hasn’t been on his “A-game” in five years since his upset win over Jermell Charlo in 2018 at age 27, and when you have that many years that elapse between your last “A-game” performance, it’s safe to say that ship has sailed on you unless Tony can find Ponce De Leon’s fabled ‘Fountain of Youth’ and guzzle from the waters to return him to the young fighter that beat Jermell 1,800 yesterdays ago.

That version of Harrison is gone forever. A sip from the Fountain of Youth won’t be good enough for the aging Harrison. He’s really got to drink until his belly is full because he’s looked terrible in his last three fights and shown no signs of the “A-game” that Shakur was speaking about.

“Tony Harrison is going to beat him. As long as he don’t get caught, he should beat him,”  said Shakur Stevenson to Thaboxingvoice, predicting a victory for Tony Harrison over Tim Tszyu next Saturday in Australia.

I don’t think Tszyu is that good,” Stevenson continued. “I could see this fight go the distance. Like I said, Tony, as long as he don’t get caught with a good shot that hurt him, wobble him, or get him out of there, he’s skillfully really good.

It’s going to be really hard for anybody to beat Tony Harrison when he’s on his A-game.”

Whatever fighter that Harrison once was way back in 2018, the guy doesn’t exist anymore. The combination of age, the money he made from his two Charlo fights, soft living, and ring wear has caused Harrison’s skills/youth to fade into the sunset, never to be seen again.

Without Harrison stumbling across the Fountain of Youth, he will be up against it next Saturday when he gets in the ring with Tszyu.

Shakur says the reason he’s picking former WBC junior middleweight champion Harrison (29-3-1, 21 KOs) to win is that he doesn’t think the unbeaten Tszyu (21-0, 15 KOs) is that good of a fighter.

You’ve got to commend Tszyu for taking this fight against Harrison because he didn’t have to do this. Tszyu is the WBO mandatory for undisputed junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo and is guaranteed a title shot & nice payday.

Why take a risky fight against the needy Harrison, who hasn’t shown much ambition in the last four years since losing his WBC 154-lb title to Jermell in their rematch in 2019?

Harrison doesn’t deserve to be in a position to earn a trilogy fight against Charlo after fighting just Twice in the last four years and looking poor in both fights in a draw against Bryant Perrella and Sergio Garcia.

Harrison was lucky to be given a draw against Perrella because he looked like he should have lost that fight. As such, why should Tszyu give the undeserving Harrison a chance to earn a title shot when he hasn’t lifted a finger to put himself in this position?

He likely wouldn’t return the favor if he were in the same spot. Harrison even said as much. The fact that Tszyu is willing to fight a faded former champion like Harrison shows what he’s made of.

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