The Greatness of Kostya Tszyu

[-Swizzy-]

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.

[WhoreUs]

Look hypocrite..If you don't want people to diminish Zoo's win over Hurtado...Don't diminish Vince's win over Zoo

Vince was a DRUG ADDICT..talk about having bad training habits

Stop making excuses..Vince took everything Zoo had and knocked his overrated ass the **** out.

Yeah..let's look what DIDN'T happen after the BRUTAL loss to Phillips..THERE WAS NO REMATCH

Look at all those lightweights and featherweights he fought.

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.

[CaRnAgEViOLaToR]

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

[WhoreUs]

as far as the lightweights and featherweights he fought.

he's a 140 lber. wouldn't it make sense for a 135 champ or former champ to come up and fight him?

plenty of featherweights , super feathers and lightweights go up to 140.

look at winky fighting hopkins at light heavyweight.

[WhoreUs]

A prime Zoo couldn't even beat Vince Phillips...lol

prime barrera couldn't even beat junior jones.

prime hopkins had a draw with segunda mercado.

prime marquez loss to freddie norwood.

what's your point? sometimes you win , sometimes you lose. you can't win it all unless you're fighting nobodies.

[The Gully Gad]

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

[The Hammer]

Kostya Tszyu was smaller in terms of height and reach than most of his opponents such as Mayweather and Hurtado.

[RightCross94]

bump..............

[princemanspoper]

And it's a good thing you did because I recently had my own little input on Kostya Poo

He quit like a little ***** against glass jawed ricky fatton.This aint MMGAY,Quitting's for cowards.There is no honor amongst cowards and Kostya Poo has none.Very overrated fighter

[BennyST]

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.