There was as soon as a time, when his report was unblemished, that boxer Tim Tszyu spoke about retiring his opponents.
And but, it wasn’t so way back that Tszyu himself virtually stop. Worn down by boxing politics, household fractures and a sequence of beat-downs – together with the lack of his world title belt – the Sydney-based pugilist misplaced the love of a sport that has been his life.
“It wasn’t from my losses,” Tszyu defined. “To a certain extent it was the politics of sport, I was thinking, ‘This is not worth it.’
“I joined the sport for the love of it, the thrill of it, the challenge of it. There are a lot of obstacles at certain times trying to stop me from doing that.
“That’s a time when I was thinking of retirement and giving it up … I won’t go into detail, it was just life.”
There had been a number of low factors. His first loss, at short notice, to Sebastian Fundora, by which a horrific head minimize price him an opportunity of retaining the WBO super-welterweight world title he had wished a lot. His devastating knockout defeat to Russian Bakhram Murtazaliev, adopted by a subsequent KO loss in his rematch with Fundora.
“There were a lot of people in the change room after victory in the Tony Harrison fight, a lot of people for that,” Tszyu recalled, referring to his defeat of the American in 2023 to say the interim WBO tremendous welterweight belt.
“But after what I went through in the Bakhram fight, there weren’t many people in the hospital, let’s just say that. You learn who is there and who is not. You learn about the ugly truth about the sport.”
But Tszyu’s choice to endure has been rewarded. After overhauling his mindset and staff – legendary boxer-turned-trainer Jeff Fenech is in his nook – Tszyu will on Sunday step into the ring for the greatest combat of his career.
The 31-year-old will tackle Errol “The Truth” Spence Jnr in a blockbuster middleweight bout at Sydney’s Afterpay Arena. Spence is a future hall-of-famer, whose solely loss was in opposition to Terence “Bud” Crawford, who turned the first undisputed welterweight champion of the four-belt period.
While a world title isn’t at stake, it’s a probability for Tszyu to tackle the opponent who has been at the high of his hit record.
“This is way bigger than a world title,” Tszyu stated. “This is hall-of-fame status, we’re talking about one of the fighters of our generation. I get to take him on and cement myself. It’s a blessing.”
When he first rose to prominence, Tszyu was dubbed “The Soul Taker”. But after a wretched run that included three loses in 4 fights, he has been rebranded as “The Phoenix”.
“All these nicknames – I’m Tim Tszyu,” he stated. “The Phoenix was like a new chapter in my life to burn from the ashes from what happened and go onto the new. That’s what it is, this new phase of my life.”
After a sequence of staff adjustments, in a bid to begin “controlling the narrative more” in his career, Tszyu has settled on Fenech as his mentor.
“There’s not many people you can ask for advice who have been there and done that,” Tszyu stated. “I’ve never been in a team where someone has felt exactly what I felt.”
It seems a peculiar remark given his father is hall-of-famer Kostya Tszyu, whereas his brother Nikita is an undefeated fighter closing in on his personal world title shot. However, apart from grandfather Boris – “he’s stayed with me through thick and thin” – Tszyu has a fancy relationship with his household.
Kostya has for a very long time lived in Russia, there was a falling out with Nikita and there was rigidity with others who had been near him.
“Everyone goes through different issues in their families,” Tszyu stated. “We are going to get through this fight and then we need to sit down and hug it out.”
Fenech, a hall-of-famer who gained 4 world titles in 4 weight divisions, has observed a change in Tszyu since turning into his coach.
“The person I saw in Tim prior to this is someone who had 110 things in his head, said some stupid things about opponents,” Fenech stated. “I told him the only thing that will sell fights is not publicity, it’s not shit talk. Your fists will sell fights.
“I’m not trying to change Tim. I’m just trying to make him a better Tim. The one thing I have changed is I have a happy guy.”
Given Spence’s lengthy lay-off – he hasn’t fought for 3 years – and Tszyu’s poor report in massive fights, the loser might be pressured into untimely retirement. Having beforehand contemplated strolling away from the sport, the Australian believes he’s about to go away his mark on it.
“I still believed in myself, I still got through it,” Tszyu stated. “And here we are, on the verge of doing something special.”
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