Promoter Eddie Hearn says he is unsure if Tim Tszyu is “elite level” after watching his back-to-back 2024 defeats to IBF junior middleweight champion Bakhram Murtazaliev and Sebastian Fundora.
Restore Tszya
Hearn feels that Tszyu’s promoters believed he was better than he actually was and put him in fights that were above his level. Now he has suffered back-to-back defeats, and his career is at its peak. Eddie says if he were Tszyu’s promoter, he would bring him back to Australia and give him the type of fight to boost his confidence. He needs to be rebuilt in terms of his confidence.
The way Tszyu (24-2, 19 KOs) was obliterated in three rounds by Murtazaliev on Oct. 19 was a sign that he is not fighting at an elite level. Former WBO 154lb champion Tszyu made no adjustments after the first knockdown and entered the fight with a poor fight plan against one of the best punchers in the division.
“I’m a big fan of Tim Tszyu. I think he is a great fighter. Sometimes, as a fighter, you can believe your own hype a little bit, and I think they felt Tim was unbeatable,” Eddie Hearn told Jai McAllister’s. YouTube channeltalking about the management of former WBO junior middleweight champion Tim Tszyu who was a little too harsh on him against Bakhram Murtazaliev.
“I really admire that they took that fight and they should have taken that fight [Bakhram] because it’s for the world championship. But nobody really wants to fight the guy because he’s a serious no-nonsense dude. So if he beats you, you’re like, but I like the fact that they did that, and I like the fact that he’s a real fighter.
“Sometimes you can get carried away. There is a huge difference between fighting in Australia and the Australian market and going on the world stage and going up against the elite. You saw that against [Sebastian] Fundora, and him [Tszyu] he was unlucky in that fight with the injury and everything,” Hearn said.
Tsyu will have to develop more as a boxer as there are fighters in the 154lb division with better striking abilities than him. Some of them, like Murtazaliev, Serhii Bohachuk and Vergil Ortiz Jr., have just as good, if not better, power. Worryingly, Tim didn’t make any adjustments in either of his last two fights against Bakhram and Fundora when things were going badly for him. He just kept stepping forward, getting into attacks and getting beat up.
“But you can’t just run through people at that level,” Hearn said of Tszy. “You have to be sweeter than that, and Tim is built on that. I love watching Tim Tszyu. He’s very, very exciting, but you don’t really want too many of those fights. It will really shorten your career and it will be interesting to see what they do with him when he comes back.”
You could tell before Tim’s fight with Murtazaliev that he was going to have trouble against the guy if he didn’t change his style and use a different approach. He thought he could knock him out like he did against lesser fighters like Carlos Ocampo, Tony Harrison and Steve Spark. He discovered that they were much better than those flaws and now his career is suffering because of his mistake.
Elite Level Gap
“I think the unknown about Tim Tszyu is whether he’s really elite level,” Hearn said. “He is a world-class fighter; there is no doubt about it. But is he really at that level? Perhaps. I think the jury is out. There’s no shame in that. Sometimes, you get to that level and you’re not good enough.”
Obviously, Tszyu isn’t an elite-level fighter, but Hearn is being diplomatic about not telling it like it is. He is a mid-level fighter, but nowhere near the top. If you put Tszyu with former 154-lb champions Serhii Bohachuk and Israil Madrimov, it would end badly for him.
“If I were his promoter, I would probably fight him here [Australia]and get him confidence against a top 15 guy and then I’d go back to America. You know one thing. He has to watch TV, Tim Tszyu. He’s not going to struggle to get a chance because people think they can beat him and he’s great to watch,” Hearn said.
