Tim Tszyu’s promoter George Rose has questioned why Turki Alalshikh chose to “kick a man while he’s down” as he did in the aftermath of Sebastian Fundora stopping Tszyu.
The 30-year-old Tszyu lost his rematch with Fundora, for the WBC junior-middleweight title, in seven rounds in July.
He and Alalshikh had previously been critical of each other after the chairman of the General Entertainment Authority became frustrated in his attempts to match Tszyu with Vergil Ortiz Jnr, but the fight with Fundora came almost a year later.
“I said to you from the beginning, Tim Tszyu does not deserve to be on a Riyadh Season or Ring Magazine card,” Alalshikh posted on social media with an image of Tszyu on the canvas on his way to defeat in the hours after Fundora-Tszyu II. “He can be useful as a sparring partner for a champion in Riyadh Season.”
Alalshikh later deleted that same post, but it was seen by Rose – who regardless stressed that he and his promotional organisation No Limit have “no animosity with anyone” – and numerous others before it was.
Tszyu resisted addressing the comments directly but as part of a wider post on social media he later said: “I see my name in headlines in a negative light and hear plenty of people putting me down. The reality is we all experience failure in life, but in the nature of my job, those failures are very public. It’s part of the price you pay in the pursuit of a life you can be proud of.”
Sam Goodman, Tszyu’s fellow Australian and No Limit fighter, as recently as on Saturday fought on a promotion overseen by Alalshikh in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and impressed in defeat by the WBA featherweight champion Nick Ball, but Rose told BoxingScene: “I’m not into kicking a man while they’re down. Tim Tszyu lost a world-title fight at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, on a Manny Pacquiao card [Pacquiao fought Mario Barrios]. Any fighter who got the opportunity to be on a card like that, let alone to lose a world-title fight on a card like that – that’s pretty high level stuff. I would not discredit a person for losing a fight like that.
“I don’t like discrediting anybody in boxing. Boxing’s a fucking tough sport; it’s a tough sport, whether you’re a fighter; whether you’re a trainer; whether you’re a manager or promoter. Whatever it is, it’s a tough sport. It’s hard work; there’s a lot of passion involved in anybody who’s involved in boxing. I’m not into kicking someone when they’re down. I’m not gonna take a shot at anybody in boxing ‘cause when you’re in boxing and you’re having a go, you’re a decent person. I would never speak like that about someone.
“People bagging other people on social media, it happens. It’s not anything new. Unless you’ve got an emotional connection with someone, when you’re at that level you’re not going to be impacted by people’s comments. It’s the people around you who matter the most; the people whose opinions you care about matter the most. The people whose opinions matter the most have all been supportive and respect the fact that Tim Tszyu lost a world-title fight at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on a Manny Pacquiao card. That’s no discredit to him at all.”
Tszyu, the son of the celebrated junior-welterweight champion Kostya – perhaps the finest Australian fighter of all time – has responded to defeat by training for the Sydney Marathon at the end of August. His younger brother Nikita on Wednesday fights Macedonia’s Lulzim Ismaili at junior middleweight at the ICC Exhibition Centre in the same city.
That the significant cut suffered in Tszyu’s first defeat by Fundora contributed to him not being able to fight Ortiz Jnr means the reason for Alalshikh’s first criticism of him remains somewhat unclear, and Rose said: “It was a medical thing that stopped Tim from being able to fight Vergil Ortiz. Tim loves the fight; he always wants to fight. It’s literally only doctors orders that have ever stopped him from being able to take a fight, and participate in it. I know [Terence] Crawford was looking for a fight, but we had [Bakhram] Murtazaliev locked in. For that division, for Tim to be a unified world champion in that division, was only going to open up more doors for him and create bigger fights in that division. It’s still a hell of a division to be in. But we’ve got no animosity with anyone. We love boxing; we love doing our thing. Tim loves doing his thing; Tim loves fighting.”
The promoter was also asked, of Alalshikh’s comment, about the connotations about sparring partners, and he responded: “Bloody hell – sparring partners have made some of the greatest fighters in boxing history. Without good sparring partners you cannot be a great fighter. Sometimes that’s the difference between a good fighter and a great fighter – who’s pushing you to your limit; to be your best.
“It’s actually, funnily enough, one of the things we struggle with the most down here in Australia. The best sparring that you can get is the guys you’ve either gotta fight here on your way up or you’re at your limit of what you can test yourself with here. In Europe and in the US, you’ve got them lining up by the hundreds. When Tim does his Las Vegas camps there’s a list of 100 guys to choose for sparring; over here you’ve got three or four, and some of them are your mates; one of them’s his brother [Nikita]. It’s a tough list to choose from.”
