To all of you in America… Whats his name?!
Tim Tszyu has sent a frightening message to the undisputed champion Jermell Charlo, stopping Tony Harrison in round 9 of their fight for the WBO interim junior middleweight title Sunday afternoon at Qudos Bank Arena.
It was an even start to the fight with Harrison keeping his distance as predicted, controlling the opening round with his accurate jab. Tszyu managed to land a several counter shots early but nothing of significance.
In rounds 2 and 3 Tszyu began to find his mark, getting inside the jab of Harrison and connecting with several shots which left the American dazed without knocking him down.
In the weeks leading up to the fight Harrison mentioned he had that ‘Detroit Grit’ and he certainly proved it throughout the fight. Tszyu landed the more powerful punches throughout the fight yet Harrison continued to work his jab and managed to connect with some meaningful combinations during the middle rounds of the fight.
In typical Tszyu fashion he attacked the body of Harrison throughout, which gradually affected the tall American the longer the fight went on, constantly leaning on the ropes in the later rounds due to exhaustion.
Halfway through the ninth round, Tszyu started to smell blood in the water after connecting with several heavy shots to Harrison which left him dazed against the ropes. It was at this moment that Tszyu absolutely unleashed, connecting with several uppercuts to drop Harrison and end the fight in what many agreed to be a late stoppage by referee, Danrex Tapdasan.
Former world champion Shawn Porter Jnr was one of the many key boxing figures commentating the fight on Main Event and was shocked how long the fight was allowed to go on. “Look at this here, uppercut, uppercut, I’m very mad at this ref for allowing Tony to take this many clean shots and not step in” Porter said.
Despite being outspoken in the lead up, Tony Harrison was all class in the post-fight interview.
“I trained hard. I trained extremely hard for the fight,” Harrison said.
“I don’t need no more victories, the better man won tonight and the city was electric, the crowd was electric and like I said the better man won tonight.”
Tim Tszyu felt as if he proved all his doubters wrong in the fight whilst giving Harrison credit.
“The respect is always there. We had a bit of banter, but we always had respect for each other. Tonight, I proved to him I was the better man,” Tszyu said.
“The message was sent clearly. You know what’s up (Jermell Charlo). You know what’s next. I’m coming. I’m coming to America. Australia already knew, now the world. What’s my mother******’ name? Say my mother******’ name.”
In other fights, former Australian Olympian Paulo Aokuso did not get the finish he wanted against Yunieski Gonzalez, however it was still a dominant unanimous decision win (97-92, 99-90, 100-89) for the IBO Inter-Continental light heavyweight title.
Queenslander, Rohan Murdock was on the right end of a split-decision win over Issac Hardman (97-92, 97-92, 93-96). Hardman was furious at the judges after fight, despite Murdock being ahead on majority of the expert’s cards. Murdock dominated the early rounds, whilst Hardman left his run too late in the fight.
Nikita Tszyu got the family off to a perfect start, finishing tough Tasmanian Bo Belbin in the fourth round. “The Butcher” seemed a different fighter soon as he saw blood on his opponent’s face, picking up his aggression and landing heavy shots. This moves the younger Tszyu to 5-0 (4KO’s), whilst former world champion Jeff Fenech said on Main Event “It was the best version of Nikita I’ve seen so far”.
