Back to hell: Tim Tszyu braced for rewrite and redemption in Sebastian Fundora rematch

LAS VEGAS – It was too horrific, too dramatic, too good to deny a rematch.

So even though Sebastian Fundora needed to surrender his WBO junior-middleweight belt to make it happen, a return fight with Australia’s former champion Tim Tszyu will occur July 19 as the co-main event to the Manny Pacquiao-Mario Barrios welterweight title fight in Las Vegas.

“It’s the first rematch of my career. It’s exciting to be able to re-write my mistakes,” Tszyu told reporters at a Saturday news conference at Mandalay Bay to discuss the deep card.

For Tszyu 25-2 (18 KOs), flashing back to the first Fundora fight of March 2024 is a bittersweet event in that he sustained a deep head gash caused by a Fundora elbow in the early going, when a cornerman or ringside doctor might’ve been wise to stop the bout and have the fighters battle another day.

Instead, Tszyu fought through gruesome conditions – a virtual bloodbath – as Fundora wailed through his own bloody nose to claim a split-decision triumph to win the WBC and WBO belts in the forever memorable first Premier Boxing Champions main event on Prime Video.

“It was one hell of a fight. I got to test myself in the heart, to prove to myself I can go on no matter what,” Tszyu said Saturday.

Tszyu didn’t fire a cornerman or rail at the Nevada commission.

“I never make any excuses. I put it all on the line,” he said. “If you lose, you lose. If you win, you win. You go on to the next.” 

He went head-long toward another questionable decision, going after new IBF junior-middleweight champion Bakhram Murtazaliez in October 2024, getting knocked down four times before being stopped in the third round and even reaching for the repaired head wound as the beating continued.

While Tszyu posted an April TKO of Joseph Spencer to regain some confidence, he’s expecting another vicious affair in the second chapter with Fundora.

“Me and Fundora, we both like to press, and push the action, so as much as we say we’d like a more technical fight, Fundora can’t be technical. He’s 7-foot. You’ve gotta make it a fight and bring the action,” Tszyu said. “Anyone fighting him is in for a hard night. … It’s going to be a war. I’m a boxer at heart.”

It can’t be as hard as the first time, though.

Tszyu admitted, “I lost my mind from like round 3 to round 10. I wasn’t in the same mindset [from the cascade of blood].”

By the time he felt equipped to concentrate fully on the bout, “it was too late,” he said.

“I feel like I know what needs to be done,” he said.

So the unfinished business, aided by a rematch clause, will be tended to. 

“I want that title. With the redemption story, the fact we both went through life and death together … it’s one of those things we need to rewrite,” Tszyu said.

Before the first fight, Tszyu was talking of pursuing undisputed status at 154lbs. His value remains high given that Fundora acknowledged it made more business sense to fight the popular Tszyu rather than defend both belts against WBO mandatory challenger Xander Zayas.

This time, Tszyu won’t cast his vision anywhere beyond Fundora.

“I’ve made those future plans before,” he said. “This fight is it for me.”