Tim Tszyu’s promoter has encouraged him to fully recover from his defeats by Sebastian Fundora and Bakhram Murtazaliev before returning to the ring.
The Australian, 30, endured perhaps the most chastening 18 months of any world-class fighter when, having suffered a significant cut to his scalp, he sacrificed his WBO junior-middleweight title to Fundora in a closely contested fight when recording his first defeat in March 2024.
He returned to challenge the IBF champion Bakhram Murtazaliev in October and was stopped by the heavy-handed Russian in three rounds and, having then stopped Joseph Spencer in four in April, lost for the third time in four fights when being knocked down and then withdrawn after seven rounds of his rematch with the vastly improved Fundora in July.
It is accepted wisdom that even the very finest fighters benefit from rest and recovery after damaging defeats, and it was tempting to conclude after the rematch with Fundora that Tszyu, regardless of his victory over Spencer, was still showing the hallmarks of his 2024.
The combination of his profile and his apparent fearlessness means it would come as little surprise if when the time comes for him to return he does so in another risky fight – it is little secret that he was on course to fight Keith Thurman before he was offered the rematch with Fundora – but George Rose of his promoters No Limit believes he can return to the level he was at when he remained undefeated if in the interim he prioritises rest.
“I’m fine with him taking a rest,” Rose told BoxingScene. “Tim’s a guy who historically loves to fight four-to-five times a year. He finishes a fight, he wants to get straight back in; he loves to fight; he loves to be in camp; he loves to be doing his thing. He’s never really had long breaks – apart from the injuries he’s never really taken these long breaks. Even these long breaks for him might be only six months – some guys fight once every 12 months or once every nine months. A long break for Tim would be six months; I wouldn’t be looking at rushing him back into the ring this year.
“When a fighter loses you always wonder how they’re gonna come back from it, because everybody comes back differently. Some people build from it and become even greater fighters, and some can never get back to where they were. I think that every individual is different. Tim’s a guy who decides his own destiny – his own journey – and regardless of what happened in those fights, how he bounces back will still be up to him and what he does going forward. If there’s changes he makes; if there’s different approaches for him to fights – because when you’re at that level it’s the tiniest little things that can give you that advantage – [he will be the one to decide]. Fundora’s always been an inside fighter – he fought so well on the inside in that fight – and it was that little change that helped him get the upper edge over Tim. I think that Tim will come back stronger; his first reactions were he wants to fight; he wants to get back into it. That’s clear of where his head’s at – he still wants to compete at that level, and I’m just an open door. They come and tell me, ‘I wanna chase a world title’, we’ll draw out the path and make it happen.
“He’s good. He had a break after the fight and spent an extra week over in America recovering; he came back home and he’s training for a marathon [in Sydney, at the end of August]. He’s running at the moment. That’s what he’s doing in his downtime – you can’t question whether he’ll be fit and raring to go when he comes back. That’s him. He’s a competitor. He pushes himself; he challenges himself, and seeing him put his hand up to do that tells me he’s still got that hunger; he still wants to challenge himself and his body and push his body and I think that things like that show your hunger when you’re coming back. When he makes a decision to get back into a training camp and lock into a fight, he’ll have that hunger and desire, and he’ll know – ‘cause you need it to be successful in the sport.
“I won’t push him to get back in by a set date; by a set time. I want him to recover from what he’s been through over the last 18 months. He’s had a hell of a rollercoaster. When he’s ready – that’s probably more mental than physical. Physically, there’s no doubt that he’ll be ready – he’s running a marathon. Mentally, when he’s ready to lock into a camp and get the journey started again and open the book on the next chapter, that’s when I’m ready for him to go. Until then we’ll be busy with his brother [Nikita] and other fighters; we’ve got plenty happening at the same time, but when he does decide to get back in, we’ll make sure that we plot that path out for him, rip in, and hit the ground running.”
Tim’s younger brother Nikita, 27, on Wednesday fights the Macedonian Lulzim Ismaili at junior middleweight at the ICC Exhibition Centre in their home city of Sydney.
As with Tszyu-Ismaili, No Limit promoted Thurman’s victory over Brock Jarvis at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion in March in anticipation of matching him with the elder of the Tszyu brothers, but Tszyu instead prioritising the WBC champion Fundora has reportedly led to Thurman agreeing to be Fundora’s next challenger, even with Rose insisting that a fight between Tszyu and Thurman can be revived.
“That’s the best I’ve seen Fundora fight,” the promoter continued. “I thought he was amazing; he’s built like that; he maximised every asset that he had and I thought he was brilliant, and Tim just couldn’t get there on him, and Fundora was too good on the night. Tim said it himself – Fundora was too good on the night. But you’re not gonna come up against a Fundora again – he’s an anomaly in the division. He’s not gonna come up against a fighter like that again. But it’s still tough to take. He wanted that belt badly, and to have that experience to be there for it was a very sombre finish to our Vegas trip.
“It was a tough one to watch. I hate seeing any of my fighters lose. I’m very close with all of them. It’s an emotional feeling when you see someone lose like that, knowing how bad he wanted it; knowing how hard he prepared for it. You experience that as well.
“I like Keith Thurman. He came out here to Australia – mate, he had such a good energy, the way he sells a fight. But not only that, every gym that he went to, everybody could not speak highly enough about this bloke. He’d hang around; he’d watch their fighters; he’d provide tips to young guys; even to established guys. Having these boxing conversations – he’s such a well-knowledged boxing man. He had a real good impact over here, so even though he’d be on the other side, I’m not gonna hate him. I’ve got to stay clear of him ‘cause I really like him and I hate when I like the opponent. There’s no worse feeling than liking the opponent, because you wish them success as well, so it’s hard when they’re fighting your fighter. I’ll stay clear of Keith Thurman in the hope that we can get a win against him.”
Reflecting on Tszyu choosing to fight Fundora instead of Thurman, Rose then added: “It’s the decisions that a fighter will make on their way through their boxing journey – sometimes the belt means more than the dollars for some. A fight with Thurman is one that Tim would have won. Don’t get me wrong – I think Thurman is an amazing fighter, but he’s also a much more manageable height and reach that he’s dealing with.
“Tim Tszyu would have the chance to fight his fight as a dominant junior middleweight, but instead the opportunity to fight for the belt was there, and to have that rematch – to scratch that itch that had been lingering around for him, wondering what would have happened if that cut didn’t come around the first time around…
“I thought Tim would have won that fight first time around. Tim was very confident that he would have won that fight first time around if the cut didn’t happen. It’s hard to not scratch that itch when it’s presented to you. He took that fight, but a Thurman fight [would have] been great to build Tim’s profile in America against a guy who can talk like Thurman and who can fight like Thurman; a guy with his resume, his history, it would have been a very good fight for Tim, and it’s still one that I hope that he gets the chance to have one day. But the fight with Fundora for that WBC belt was there, and Fundora turned up and fought the amazing fight that he did.”
