Boxing pundit Tim Bradley believes that former WBO junior middleweight champion Tim Tszyu’s corner didn’t know what they were doing by failing to stop the fight after the fourth round due to the cut that he’d sustained in his title defense against Sebastian Fundora last Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
If the corner had stopped the fight because of the cut, it would have gone to the scorecards, and Tszyu (24-1, 17 KOs) would have won because he was still ahead at that point.
Instead, Tszyu’s corner allowed the fight to continue and was fighting with blood leaking in his eyes, making it impossible for him to see clearly. Bradley feels that Tszyu’s corner were clueless, and also, they were also governed their pride.
Bradley’s Perspective on the Cut Severity
“The cut was in a spot, and it wasn’t life-threatening. Usually, when a fight gets stopped, they’re above the eye gashes,” said boxing expert Tim Bradley to the Probox TV YouTube channel about the controversy over why last Saturday’s fight between Tim Tszyu and Sebastian Fundora wasn’t stopped after Tszyu’s bad cut in the second round.
“This was on the top of the head. It wasn’t a life-threatening type of injury that he [Tszyu] suffered, and the doctor didn’t feel it was going to get any bigger because of the area where it was at,” said Bradley.
It was surprising that the ringside doctor didn’t step in and stop the fight due to the sheer amount of blood that was leaking from Tszyu’s cut. Even if he was repeatedly telling the doctor that he could still see, the amount of blood that was leaking should have been enough for him to halt the contest.
The Doctor’s Role and Tszyu’s Determination
“The question you got to ask is that I went back, and I watched. The doctor asked Tim Tszyu, every time he brought him over, ‘Can you see?’ Guess what Tim Tszyu said? ‘Yes, I can see.’ ‘Can you see, Tim Tszyu?’ ‘Yes, I can see.’ At that point, it’s out of the doctor’s hand,” said Bradley.
Tszyu had a pride thing going on because he’s not the type to quit due to a problem like a cut. It’s likely part of his upbringing and also an Australian thing. Australians are tough people and aren’t going to give up, even if injured.
“If you have a fighter that says he can see, that’s when it’s out of the doctor’s hands,’ said Bradley. “The people that are at fault are the ones that didn’t know the rules, and that’s the corner. The corner had no clue what the hell they were doing. A little bit had to do with pride, and there was a lot to do with they did not know the rules.
When Bradley Would Have Stopped the Fight
“After the third round, I would have stopped the fight, and if I didn’t do it in the third round, I would have done it in the fourth or maybe in the fifth,” said Bradley.
“If I was coaching him and I was thinking that maybe we had a chance to knock this guy out, I would have said, ‘Give me two more hard rounds. Win these rounds decisively, then we’re going to get up out of here,’ because I would have saved my fighter,” said Bradley.
If Bradley had been Tszyu’s coach and he pulled him out, he might not have been too happy with him doing that. You have to imagine that Tszyu’s trainer was speaking to him about the cut in between rounds, and if he told him that he wanted to continue, it would not be surprising that the fight wasn’t stopped.