The Greatness of Kostya Tszyu

Kostya Tszyu > tito

how the hell can you diminish tszyu's win over hurtado? because he got knocked down? lol he ktfo hurtado in 5 rounds! i can diminish vince's win all i want. at best you can say vince's win was due to bad style matchup. everyone knows kostya had a hard time making weight at the time and his training habits were somewhat lacking. after the loss , he changed his training habits and his diet. can you argue with the result? fact is kostya tszyu is a greater fighter than vince phillips. junior jones beat marco antonio barrera twice in marco's prime. does that mean barrera isn't great? no. junior jones was just a bad matchup for a greater fighter. This is true.....KT was not very disciplined until after that loss to Phillips......i saw an interview with him talking about how fukked up he was after that fight.....he said he was physically ill for 2 weeks afterwards.........hence he re-dedicated himself because in his words "never again"

Good thread.....KT is a legend.......one of the greatest 140 pounders ever......should have made the move to 147 later in his career though...........

I was talking about Kostya Tszyu with a Floyd Mayweather Jr. fan earlier today and he asked , "Who the hell is Kostya Tszyu?" and "Who the hell did Kostya Tszyu beat?" It's time the greatness of Kostya Tszyu is appreciated. He is one of the most underrated fighters on this board. That's unfortunate. I will do my best to change that. First of , who is Kostya Tszyu you ask? He's one of the greatest junior welterweights of all time. He's up there with all the other greats who have fought at 140 and would be competitive with any of them head to head. Second , who has he beat? Well here's a list of some of the opponents he beat , their record when they first fought Kostya and some of the titles they've held. Zab Judah (27-0-0) WBO/IBF140 , WBC/WBA/IBF147 Champion Sharmba Mitchell (47-2-0) WBA/IBF140 Champion Julio Cesar Chavez (103-4-2) WBC130 , WBC/WBA135 , WBC/IBF140 Champion Roger Mayweather (54-11-0) WBA130 , WBC/IBO140 , IBA/IBO147 Champion Rafael Ruelas (52-3-0) IBF135 Champion Jesse James Leija (43-5-2) WBC130 , IBA135 Champion Oktay Urkal (28-0-0) Ben Tackie (24-2-0) Miguel Angel Gonzalez (43-1-1) WBC135 Champion Diobelys Hurtado (28-1-0) WBA/IBA140 Champion Calvin Grove (49-9-0) IBF126 Champion Ismael Armando Chaves (40-5-3) Jan Piet Bergman (32-0-0) WBU147 Champion Corey Johnson (20-1-1) IBC140 Champion Hugo Pineda (27-0-1) Jake Rodriguez (26-2-2) IBF140 Champion Pedro Sanchez (26-1-2) Angel Hernandez (40-1-2) Hector Lopez (26-2-1) Livingstone Bramble (34-11-3) WBA135 Champion Juan LaPorte (37-12-0) WBC126 Champion Tszyu: Patient as ****, stiff probing jab, laser sharp right hand, high boxing IQ and tough as nails... Always professional and trained like a demon. Plus took on all comers. Great thread for a class act & a great fighter. There are tons of newbies who jump on bandwagons because it seems cool-can't allow them to affect you in a negative way-try to educated 'em or ignore 'em. My favorite Russian fighter & for the record, :boxing:had he been 4 or 5 years younger, Hatton would've been in real trouble.

Kostya was over-rated? You guys don't know shit about boxing. He owned his division forever. A lot of the names he beat might not be big names to you, but at the time they were top notch opponents. You guys really need to actually watch some fights and do some research before you open your mouth. The disrespect to the vets on this site is crazy.

The only reason that Kostya Tzyu is not highly rated by us Westerner boxing fans is down to xenophobia and, in some cases, racism. It is as simple as that.

Pre - Tszyu v Hatton: This is it for Ricky, he's beat some good b-level fighters but his career has gone as far as it can. Kostya is just a different class, Hatton won't be able to hang with him. He can't step up to world level. Post - Tszyu v Hatton: Kostya was old, he was never gonna win. Ricky's prime and Kostya's shot. It pisses me off how "overrated" Ricky become after one demolition against Pacquiao. Ricky's career, everyone he's fought has now been picked apart, criticised beyond all fairness, he's been branded a chinny C class club fighter. He's 31 yet apparently he's completely shot and nowhere near good enough to be in the ring with anyone like Khan, Alexander or Bradley. I'll simply say this though, there's a reason Ricky's only two defeats, (regardless of the manner they were in) are against the p4p number 1 fighters at the time. Because anyone else who was not p4p number 1 at the time got beaten, fairly and convincingly by the Hitman. I won't believe a word that he's completely shot until he steps in the ring at 140 and gets laid out by any of the 140 champions. It won't happen.

I tend not to like whiteboys, especially British, but I don't mind Joe Calzaghe. Not many guys have been World Champion for well over a decade and retired undefeated. Also, for him to unify his division, then go and win a World title at Light-Heavyweight against the great Bernard Hopkins (long before Bernard destroyed Kelly Pavlik) is kinda impressive.

I consider him an ATG. Top 50 for sure. But I do think some folks severely overrate him. like YOU lol. Top 50 ATG? That's just retarded. :peeright:that statement

Kostya Tszyu is an overrated fighter and without question the most overrated puncher of all time.Tszyu was a frontrunner who folded each time the going got tough.The likes of Hatton and Phillips showed how overrated Tszyu's power was as they stood up to his best and dished out their own punishment of which Tszyu could not handle. Giving Tszyu credit for beating washed up fighters like Livingstone Bramble,Roger Mayweather,Julio Cesar Chavez and Juan LaPorte shows just how shallow this mans resume is. His greatest win is over Zab Judah,who has never proven himself to be anything other than a good fighter who has failed each time he stepped up in opposition. Mayweather would have beaten Tszyu so damn easily....and Tszyu knew this as he ducked Mayweather and every other elite fighter of his generation. I never understood what ppl felt about him that was so special... he was solid... good punch... but to call him great... I never understood that... I enjoyed his fights but to call him great never crossed my mind honestly

The greatness of Tszyu is underappreciated. Nonetheless, most consider him a top three to five 140 pounder ever, which is a huge compliment considering the stacked talent of the division. He was a great fighter in a great division at a time that the 140 pound division had the deepest talent in boxing. A top P4P'er for a decade fighting his first champ in only his fourth fight and from thereon out only ever fought the top contenders and championship caliber fighters. His only bad loss was to Phillips, a fight that he was winning up until the last couple of rounds where his terrible training habits and lack of activity (most people forget that he had only fought one round in a year) of the time cost him the fight after he ran out of gas. Still, after renewing his proper training he came back and didn't lose for the next eight years until his last fight at the age of 36 against Hatton in a brawl. He fought an incredible sixteen champions in his short career (only had thirty or so fights) and was often stiffed during his prime years for lack of willing opponents. He just missed out on big fights with Mosley, Oscar, Mayweather for the high risk, low reward factor that he brought up until his final years as an older fighter in one of the top divisions in boxing where he was finally a big money opponent and name. As mentioned previously, he had only fought one round in a year at the time of the Phillips fight and had fallen into shocking training habits well away from his proper boxing, speed and stamina training that he picked up again after that loss. Also, during his peak years as already mentioned he struggled to find willing opponents to take the high risk low reward fight shown in his activity during his best years and early career often fighting only twice a year, sometimes only once from as early as his fourteenth fight! Even before that he was only able to fight three times a year which would be a normal champions routine, instead of a young, up and coming prospect. I think that was one of the banes of his career and that inactivity finally caught up to him by the end of his career struggling with numerous injuries and having to postpone fights etc and by the end was only able to fight once a year for the last four years of his career. One of his better years though was 2001 which he was able to get three fights unifying the titles in a great fight against Sharmba Mitchell, defending it against the number one contender and undefeated 28-0 Oktay Urkal, then finishing the year by spectacularly knocking out the undefeated 27-0 IBF champion Zab Judah in two rounds thus becoming the first undisputed 140 pound champion in over thirty years. He first turned pro in '92 and by '95 was already champion and for the rest of his career only fought the best. Great underrated career and fighter.

I love Kostya Tsyzu me.. Im off to put my clip on ponytail on fcuk it..

tszyu was a great fighter and a dominant champion until he met ricky hatton but he would have lost to mayweather by decision

I was talking about Kostya Tszyu with a Floyd Mayweather Jr. fan earlier today and he asked , "Who the hell is Kostya Tszyu?" and "Who the hell did Kostya Tszyu beat?" It's time the greatness of Kostya Tszyu is appreciated. He is one of the most underrated fighters on this board. That's unfortunate. I will do my best to change that. First of , who is Kostya Tszyu you ask? He's one of the greatest junior welterweights of all time. He's up there with all the other greats who have fought at 140 and would be competitive with any of them head to head. Second , who has he beat? Well here's a list of some of the opponents he beat , their record when they first fought Kostya and some of the titles they've held. yeah, I think he's underrated but only cuz great fighters didn't want to fight him in his prime. Hard to really assess his greatness cuz who knows what the outcome would've been if he actually fought dlh, ricky hatton, Mayweather Jr in his prime. Those are the fantasy fights that could've happened but didn't.

I bow to the greatness that is Kostya Tszyu..... http://images-cdn01.associatedcontent.com/image/A3063/306377/300_306377.jpg

:lol1::lol1:

Mayweather Stopped Hatton. Hatton stopped Tszyu. WHAT'S YOUR POINT? Worse version of Tszyu that Hatton fought and a worse version of Judah (coming off a loss) that Mayweather fought. What's YOUR point?

Why wouldn't Mayweather fight Hatton at 140, Flawless? It would not have made a difference. Hatton isn't in Floyd's class, it was blatantly obvious.

Kostya was fighting at his natural weight, where as Mayweaher start at 130 and was fighting at 147. Has Kostya ever moved up weight and won a title?? so what does that make hagler? he never moved up in weight. :nonono: drop it , flaw. go make a flame thread in the thunderdome or something and annoy your rivals.

Oscar is taller quicker and stronger than Kostya. Kostya can beat tito aswell kostya can't beat tito , tito's too big. oscar has fought at 130 before. oscar at 140 would've been a good fight for kostya.