Tim Tszyu, and how the show will go on

It was tempting, when witnessing the crushed and concussed Tim Tszyu speak at the press conference that followed his stoppage defeat by Bakhram Murtazaliev, to wonder if the bubble that had grown around the golden boy of Australian boxing had burst.

Tszyu, unusually in the circumstances of defeat, had perhaps emerged from losing for the first time, to Sebastian Fundora in Las Vegas in March, with his reputation and profile enhanced. 

It was partly for that reason that his co-promoters Premier Boxing Champions rewarded him with an immediate fight for a world title, against the IBF junior-middleweight champion at Orlando’s Caribe Royale. They were also partly rewarding his willingness to fight Fundora at late notice – on the occasion of the launch of their broadcast agreement with Amazon Prime – when in Keith Thurman he had prepared for a significantly different nature of opponent, and would have recognised the value his undoubted marketability represents.

The handsome, photogenic son of a long-celebrated champion, complemented by the high-profile platform presented by Australia’s Fox Sports and Main Event, has long been a household name in his home country and had become increasingly popular overseas. For all of Murtazaliev’s abilities – and there remained an element of mystery surrounding the heavy-handed Russian – his limited grasp of the English language contributed to Tszyu being considered considerably more capable of becoming one of the poster boys of a new era for PBC.

That he had such an admirable willingness to not only fight Murtazaliev – and had previously been so ready to fight Virgil Ortiz Jnr – without a lower-key, lower-risk date to recover from what had unfolded against Fundora had contributed to that, as did the fearlessness and conviction with which he carried himself, in the belief that on a night when he fought for 10 rounds with blood pouring from his scalp and into his eyes the judges had been wrong to award Fundora a split-decision victory.

If Kostya Tszyu chose to be present in Florida – he had last attended one of his oldest son’s fights when he made his professional debut in 2016 – because he was aware of the threat posed by the 31-year-old Murtazaliev, he would also have detected the increased threat he posed off the back of his son recording his first defeat. 

In the aftermath of Tim Tszyu’s corner throwing in the towel in the third round to rescue him from the inevitability of further punishment, not only had losing to Murtazaliev become the most damaging night of his career, the fight against Fundora looked considerably worse. In the modern era still influenced by the long-retired Floyd Mayweather, successive defeats prompt numerous questions – many of them unjust – and whether or not Tszyu and his “brand” (another word capable of defining so much of a sport that in 2024 unfolds as much on social media as it does in the ring) can recover is prominent among them.

It was when Tszyu, 29, had become the most appealing challenger to the then-undisputed junior-middleweight champion Jermell Charlo that he was on course to realise his potential. Three fights later (his past victory was over Brian Mendoza), despite his plans to relocate to Vegas, he is faced with rebuilding his career in Australia – but where he will realise he can still succeed.

The long-term investment of broadcasters Fox Sports and Main Event in not only the career of Tszyu but that of his younger brother Nikita and their agreement with Tszyu’s Australia-based co-promoter No Limit means that there exists the publicity of the Fox Sports and News organisations that includes newspapers and online publications. The marketing machine earned largely by his surname but gradually justified by his character and career will remain influential if Tszyu – who has long been the hungriest of fighters – retains the physical gifts and confidence that until relatively recently had inspired his ongoing rise.

“Back to back losses at this level is obviously a long way from ideal,” Ben Damon, of Fox Sports and Main Event, told BoxingScene. “It would have been seen by some as sensible to take an easier fight – not a somewhat mysterious world champion like Murtazaliev, particularly coming off that bloody loss to Fundora – and everyone would agree with that now, with the benefit of hindsight. 

“The fact is, because of how big a star Tim’s become, lower-level fights could have sold really well and done significant business for Main Event and No Limit, without the same level of risk, but that’s just not who Tim Tszyu is – he always wants the hardest fights and he’s drawn towards the risk. They took that risk because they wanted to shoot for the stars and of course a loss was a real blow but it’s not the end of the road – Australian boxing won’t be throwing in the towel.

“Tim will remain a star in Australia and his next fight will be a significant fight regardless. There’s a match-up that probably needs to happen at some point between one of the Tszyu brothers, Tim or Nikita, and Michael Zerafa. That’s a huge domestic fight and Zerafa has made himself the bad guy of Australian boxing. So that’s the obvious fight for Tim now, but who knows if he will want to do the obvious thing? Ultimately it’s Tim’s call but he’s not going to stop being a huge name in Australia and a star in the Aussie sporting market because of these losses. There will be huge interest in what moves he makes next.”

Michael Zerafa, unlike Tszyu little-known beyond Australia, has already claimed that they are negotiating a fight – potentially because of the knowledge that had Tszyu defeated Murtazaliev without enduring a significant injury he planned to make the first defence of his title in Sydney between Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve.

In the end, a fight for which he was considered the favourite became what the retired Shawn Porter, commentating from ringside, described as a “one-sided beatdown”. Those invested in Tszyu may have admired his reckless bravery – the determination to force a knockdown so soon after suffering the first that he so quickly returned to his feet instead of taking his time to recover – as much as they’d have felt frustrated by his tactics and naivety.

Tszyu appeared to believe that he could walk Murtazaliev down – and it was reported, post-fight, that his corner had instructed him to avoid taking risks during the opening four rounds. He once may have been accused of attempting to impress his father – little over 48 hours earlier again described of Australia’s “greatest of all time” – instead, what was witnessed above all else was the conviction of a young fighter who had so transparently become his own man.

“Tim has been fighting as a headliner on pay-per-view since he won the Australian title [against Joel Camilleri] in 2019 and he’s steadily built into being a huge pay-per-view seller in Australia, so naturally there’s a lot of interest and investment from No Limit, from Tim Tszyu and his team, and from Main Event and Fox Sports, in getting as many eyeballs as possible in front of everything that happens in the build-up to a fight and particularly in fight week, to get the best possible result,” Damon continued. “That’s the nature of promotion of a fighter and an event.

“It’s fair to assume that Tim would probably not have had the springboard at an early stage of his career, without that surname, but he did still have to win the fights, and he got himself to a level where he’s been able to emerge, in Australia at least, out of Kostya’s shadow. Internationally Kostya still has a great impact on how Tim is received, and he has probably received enhanced opportunities in America because of the path that Kostya blazed, but it can’t be doubted that he’s doing his own thing and has been doing it very, very well. Tim really is his own man, and has become his own star.

“Kostya was adopted and made an absolute darling by the Australian public, because of the way that he fought and how exciting his style was, and the great success he had in becoming champion, but also because of the way that he carried himself outside the ring. He had an accent and a unique demeanour that really endeared him to the Australian sporting public, and he became a real mainstream star through those times, so of course that surname holds a lot of weight.

“For one of the really significant, early, pay-per-view fights Tim had against Jack Brubaker, we brought Kostya out to be a big part of that promotion, and that really had a positive effect. On the other side, Brubaker’s trainer was Jeff Fenech, so it pitted the two legends against each other, and Jeff is an icon in Australia, so anytime he’s involved in any promotion it’s really significant. 

“It feels like Tim has been pretty happy that Kostya hasn’t been around his professional boxing journey, because he can do his own thing. He’s the star, and he doesn’t have to worry so much about how his dad’s going to react, but he at least seems to have got to a point now – he’s very comfortable for his dad to be around. Previously, when Kostya was going to come to a fight and couldn’t at the last minute, Tim said he was relieved. Now it has felt like he believes he’s ready to have him around.

“The Tszyu family and Kostya’s relationship with his former wife and with his children, and his new family in Russia, did play out at times like something of a soap opera but it’s probably not something that has the same level of focus on it now. Kostya, being such a huge personality and such a huge star, was always going to have that sort of microscope on him – particularly when you consider that he came to Australia with Natasha, who is such a strong and glamorous person, and they were a pair that was immediately picked up and loved by the Australian public. They’ve had a lot of focus on them for a long, long time and they’ve all handled it very well – they’re all very civil now and supportive of each other.”

Nikita Tszyu, Tim’s 26-year-old younger brother, is a 10-0 professional who also fights at 154lbs and who was present in the corner on fight night in Orlando. Nikita and Kostya were seeing each other for the first time in 11 years, but more relevant in the context of his brother’s career is that the interest that exists in Nikita can also maintain that in Tim, particularly if Tim – as would unquestionably be wise – rests following so challenging a 2024, and Nikita remains active and potentially even gives Tim a chance to still be seen. 

“It’s probably incredible to an international audience that Nikita Tszyu, at such early stage in his career, is already a pay-per-view fighter in Australia,” Damon explained. “The Tszyu surname – not only being his dad’s, but his brother’s – meant he was launched on to TV and headlined a Fox Sports show on debut [against Aaron Stahl]. Tim was in relative obscurity for a long time before the decisions and the investments were made in him and he performed accordingly.

“Nikita’s such an entertaining person and fighter – his fights are really compelling; he’s such a big puncher. He’s happy to get hit, which I know his dad’s not particularly pleased about. But it makes for such exciting television that he’s attracted a huge audience and a huge following already, at such a young stage. He does the business inside the ring, and his quirky personality outside the ring has really brought that mainstream audience as well. He’s someone – when he talks, people listen, and you never know what you’re going to hear, because he’s on a different planet a lot of the time, which has really helped him grow and become an emerging star, and [become] someone who’s already doing significant business for all those who are invested in him.”

Australian boxing has never before had such an array of talent. Jai Opetaia is the world’s finest cruiserweight and, like the junior welterweight Liam Paro, the featherweight Skye Nicolson, the bantamweight Cherneka Johnson, and the light heavyweight Che Kenneally, a reigning world champion. Nicolson is similarly marketable to Tszyu, but competing in one of the most machismo of professions, and more relevantly vying for the attention of one of the most machismo cultures of all. 

Even with Sam Goodman finally confirmed as the challenger to the revered, undisputed super-bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue on December 24, Tszyu – the single-minded throwback with the admirable willingness to risk, unlike almost all of his contemporaries, being dismissive of the influential Turki Alalshikh – remains, without question, Australian boxing’s face. 

“It is the golden era in Australian boxing’s history,” says Damon, “and we are riding a remarkable wave of success.”