Tim Tszyu is aiming for a late March bout on the Lewis Crocker-Liam Paro card in Australia, intending to leverage the victory to a showdown against former unified welterweight titleholder Errol Spence Jnr in either Texas or Las Vegas, an official confirmed to BoxingScene Monday.
Last month, ProBox TV’s Paulie Malignaggi reported from Australia that serious talks to stage a bout between Texas’ Spence, 28-1 (22 KOs), and former junior middleweight titleholder Tszyu, 26-3 (18KOs), were emerging. The Ring reported Monday that Tszyu and Spence have an agreement in place to fight in the summer.
Tszyu, 31, returned to the ring in December to defeat Anthony Velazquez by unanimous decision following his second loss in two years to Sebastian Fundora.
He’s now pegged to fight in a support bout under Crocker’s IBF title defense against Australia’s former 140lbs titleholder Paro. No Limit Boxing, which promotes Tszyu and Paro, won the purse bid for Paro’s meeting with England’s unbeaten Crocker.
Victory in that spot will move Tszyu to Spence, an official connected to the talks told BoxingScene.
Tszyu-Spence would match two veterans proving they’re moving beyond the darkest moments of their career.
In between his losses to Fundora – a bloody first fight in 2024 that featured a grisly Tszyu head wound, and then a TKO stoppage last year – Tszyu suffered a crushing, multiple-knockdown defeat to then-IBF titleholder Bakhram Murtazaliev.
Similarly, Spence was dismantled by three knockdowns while being stopped by five-division champion Terence Crawford in July 2023.
That’s the last time Spence fought.
Tszyu recently discussed the situation with Fox Sports Australia.
He said he’d “of course” be interested in fighting Spence.
“Are you serious?” he responded. “That one, if it is to happen, would be a megafight for Australia. One of the biggest ever for an Aussie, and up there alongside Jeff Horn versus Manny Pacquiao. It’s an intriguing matchup, too. And with huge stakes and plenty of questions on both sides.
“Do I still have it? Does Spence still have it?”
The news comes as the vibrant junior middleweight division offered two title fights on January 31, with Puerto Rico’s Xander Zayas unifying the WBA and WBO belts and England’s Josh Kelly upsetting Murtazaliev to capture the IBF belt.
Also Monday, BoxingScene’s Jake Donovan reported that the progress for an April bout between WBC interim titleholder Vergil Ortiz Jnr and former unified welterweight champion Jaron “Boots” Ennis have intensified.
On March 28, another former Premier Boxing Champions welterweight titleholder, Keith Thurman, will fight for Fundora’s WBC belt in Las Vegas.
A Thurman victory would generate great buzz for a later 2026 date with either Tszyu – whom he was supposed to fight before being injured in March 2024 – or Spence. Thurman and Spence long verbally sparred, but they failed to get in the ring for a unification during their title reigns.
