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Promoter Eddie Hearn says he is not sure if Tim Tszyu is “elite-level” after seeing his 2024 back-to-back defeats to IBF junior middleweight champion Bakhram Murtazaliev and Sebastian Fundora.
Rebuild Tszyu
Hearn believes Tszyu’s promoters thought he was better than he really was and put him in fights that were above his level. Now he has suffered back-to-back losses, and his career is on the rocks. Eddie says that if he were Tszyu’s promoter, he would bring him back to Australia and give him a “confidence” type of fight. He needs to be rebuilt in terms of his confidence.
The way Tszyu (24-2, 19 KOs) was obliterated in three rounds by Murtazaliev on Oct. 19 was a red flag that he’s not fighting at an elite level. Former WBO 154-pound champion Tszyu made no adjustments after the first loss, coming into the fight with a poor game plan of grappling with one of the best punchers in the division.
“I’m a big fan of Tim Tszyu. I think he’s a great fighter. Sometimes you can believe your own hype a little bit as a fighter, and I think they felt that Tim was unbeatable,” Eddie Hearn told Jai McAllister. YouTube channeltalking about managing former WBO Junior Middleweight Champion Tim Tszyu, who matched him a little too hard against Bakhram Murtazaliev.
“I really admire that they took this fight, and they should have taken this fight (Bakhram) because it’s for a world championship. But nobody really wants to fight this guy because he’s a serious no-nonsense guy. So if you they pay you’re kind of like but I like the fact that they did it and I like the fact that he’s a real fighter.
“Sometimes you can get carried away. There’s a huge difference between fighting in Australia and the Australian market and then going out on the world stage and facing elite opposition. You saw that against (Sebastian) Fundora, and he (Tszyu) was very unlucky in that fight with the injury and everything,” Hearn said.
Tsyu will need to develop more as a boxer because there are fighters in the 154-pound division with better offensive ability than him. Some of them, like Murtazaliev, Serhii Bohachuk and Vergil Ortiz Jr, have the same power, if not better. Worryingly, Tim didn’t make any adjustments in either of his last two fights against Bakhram and Fundora when things were going badly for him. He just kept plowing ahead, getting into shots and getting beat up.
“But you can’t go through people at that level,” Hearn said of Tszyu. “You’ve got to be nicer than that, and Tim’s built on that. I love watching Tim Tszyu. It’s really, really exciting, but you really don’t want too many fights like that. It’s really going to shorten your career and it’s going to be interesting to see what they do with him when he comes back.”
Before Tim’s fight with Murtazaliev, you could see that he was going to have trouble with this guy if he didn’t change his style and use a different approach. He thought he could knock him out like he had against lesser fighters like Carlos Ocampo, Tony Harrison and Steve Spark. He discovered that they are much better than those flawed boys, and now his career is suffering because of his mistake.
Elite level
“I think the unknown about Tim Tszyu is, he’s really elite level,” Hearn said. “He’s a world-class fighter; there is no doubt. But is it really at that level? maybe I think the jury is out. There is no shame in that. Sometimes you go up that level and you’re not good enough.”
Obviously, Tszyu isn’t an elite fighter, but Hearn is being diplomatic by not telling it like it is. He’s a mid-level contender, but nowhere near the top. If you put Tszyu with former 154-pound champions Serhii Bohachuk and Israil Madrimov, it would end badly for him.
“If I were his promoter, I’d probably fight him here (Australia) and get him a confidence win against a top 15, then come back to America. One thing you know. It’s must-see TV, Tim Tszyu. No he’s going to fight for opportunities because people think he can beat him, and that’s great to see,” Hearn said.
