SYDNEY, Australia – Tim Tszyu started the rebuilding process with a one-sided victory over Anthony Velazquez at the TikTok Entertainment Centre but questions will remain over his future at the highest level.
The Australian is competing in what in 2025 represents the world’s most competitive weight division and while outpointing Velazquez put the second of his defeats by Sebastian Fundora behind him, it demonstrated either the extent to which he is in decline or how much he needs to improve.
At the conclusion of 10 one-sided rounds he was awarded scores of 100-90, 100-90 and 100-91, but the statement he required to truly restore his reputation and confidence had eluded him because of the way that his increasingly unambitious opponent survived.
Velazquez, 29, arrived in Sydney as an undefeated fighter and leaves after losing convincingly, but having survived to the final bell against the odds after suffering a significant cut under his left eye in the sixth round.
The 31-year-old Tszyu was fighting for the first time since recruiting the Cuban Pedro Diaz to be his new trainer to replace his uncle Igor Goloubev, off the back of three damaging defeats in four fights. He had also separated from his long-term manager Glenn Jennings, and appointed in his place Mike Altamura and Darcy Ellis, and an advisor in Jeff Fenech.
Diaz arrived in Sydney shortly before Tuesday’s weigh-in, as a consequence of his working the corner of Norair “Noel” Mikaelian during his WBC cruiserweight title victory on Saturday in Los Angeles with Badou Jack, and by the time he landed had been criticised for considerably more than simply being late. Fenech, who stayed away from the TikTok Entertainment Centre, described footage of their preparations in Miami as “terrible”; Hector Bermudez, Velazquez’s trainer, had dismissed him as an “amateur” trainer and questioned how little time they have had together and also what he perceived to be a clash of styles destined to fail.
It was as recently as October that Tszyu unveiled Diaz as his new trainer, and of all of Bermudez’s criticisms, the one that would have been the hardest to challenge was that they require considerably longer together. Diaz had promised an improved grasp of angles and defence; Tszyu had spoken of increased tactical acumen and patience, but it was perhaps only a change in attitude that could be seen.
He started with greater composure while finding his range and timing. He was soon caught by a left hand but responded with a crisp left-right that he followed with a similarly crisp jab.
For the first time since Velazquez’s arrival in his home city it was Tszyu who looked the bigger fighter. Velazquez’s face quickly turned red under the pressure he found himself under, and he soon also recognised that Tszyu had an advantage in speed.
Successive left-rights to the body found their target under the American Puerto Rican’s high guard in the second round. Tszyu then punished his opponent with a strong right hand and then a left-right, before Velazquez fell narrowly short with a wild right hand of his own.
Tszyu’s body punching continued to succeed against Velazquez’s high guard; he was noticeably stronger and then landed a left-right-left combination with Velazquez trapped towards the ropes. Tszyu, already, was dictating the pace and range at which they fought; he remained open but his opponent was one-dimensional; he was also lacking the freshness he and Diaz would have sought.
A straight right was followed by a right-left and then a left-right-left at the start of the fourth round. Tszyu was fighting with increased intensity and Velazquez was showing the first signs of being broken down; a cut had opened by his right eye, and he was hurt once again by a left-right on the stroke of the bell and at risk of being bullied.
Velazquez found a left to Tszyu’s body then head in the fifth; Tszyu responded with successive left-rights and then a further left hand while unloading by the ropes.
A left-straight right combination rocked Velazquez’s head back in the sixth. Tszyu was lunging in but doing so from a place of relative comfort – the angles Diaz had promised were absent, but perhaps because they weren’t in need. A straight right then a left hand then opened the damaging cut under Velazquez’s right eye, presenting the most obvious of targets for his confident opponent, and what should have proved the beginning of the end.
Tszyu, in the ascendancy, claimed to have been “rejuvenated” by his new trainer, but with the opportunity presented for him to pursue the stoppage he instead started to look tired. With Velazquez’s ambition gone and him prioritising protecting the cut he had suffered he became a harder target to hurt, and the way Tszyu walked forward in straight lines became even more pronounced.
Velazquez landed a right hand in the eighth but was then open to Tszyu’s willingness to unload. The Australian was then forced to absorb strong lefts to both head and body, and fought back with a straight right hand and then a left-right.
Increasingly, despite how unlikely doing so had appeared, it became apparent Velazquez was on course to survive and that Tszyu was becoming frustrated. Tszyu, perhaps resigned to that reality, also started to slow down. He resisted Velazquez’s reckless aggression in the final round but when he spoke post-fight struggled to convince that he wasn’t somewhat disappointed.
“I really just wanted to feel comfortable in there,” he said after the scores were announced. “I wanted to get in the ring, not try go for the KO and get reckless.
“In the past, that’s what actually came wrong by me. I wanted to take my time; use my jab. I have all the skills in the world, I just need to apply them. I had a game opponent today and a scorecard of 10 rounds – I’m pretty happy with that.
“He came out swinging to the very end. He’s got pop so I didn’t want to come in and cop one.”
