The news that Tim Tszyu will soon become the WBO world champion pleased not only Australian boxing insiders, but also those who are worried about him, such as the son of Russian sports legend Konstantin Tszyu. So, Tim has a lot of fans, or, as it is customary to call him in the Russian manner, Timofey, in our country there are a lot of them. But at the same time, there are many skeptics who pay attention to the fact that 28-year-old Timofey Konstantinovich made his way to the first serious title too easily. And there is certainly some common sense in these statements.
Between the “bags” and the kangaroos
For most of his career, Tim Tszyu was a boxer, as they say, “for internal use.” He for the first time appeared in the ring outside of Oceania only in his twenty-first fight. He had one fight in New Zealand, and all the rest took place in his native Australia (Tszyu Jr. was born in Sydney). Moreover, for most of this time, he gamely beat his compatriots at a clearly below-average level, what in the boxing world is often called “bags.” But the status of son of the illustrious champion helped him gather a stormy enthusiasm, not supported by anything other than the thesis “The son of Bones goes without defeat.” In most other cases, a boxer would almost certainly be ridiculed if he fought twenty fights close to home with third-rate opponents. But Tszyu continued to collect petty belts and seemed to enjoy it.
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close to failure
Already in the first battle in the United States, Tim was almost embarrassed. At the beginning of the fight, the opponent knocked him down, and although the final victory on points still went to Tszyu, he probably realized that most of his previous victories were not worth this success alone. And the next entry into the ring, by the way, again in Australia, was for him a chance to challenge for the title of interim WBO world champion. And he took advantage of this opportunity. But the very fact of how easy his path to this achievement turned out to be is simply amazing.
World champion or son of Tszyu?
Having defeated Tony Harrison, he was very close to the main goal. After that, there was a quick win over Mexican Carlos Ocampo, and then Tim didn’t have to do a thing at all to get a step up. Jermell Charlo turned down a mandatory fight with Tszyu, saying he wasn’t too interested in a fight with this opponent, choosing the formidable Saúl Álvarez as his next opponent.
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Now Tim will receive the championship belt automatically, and his father has already announced that his son’s next fight will be a unification – immediately for two belts – WBO and WBC. It’s very easy to get carried away with euphoria in such a situation, but if this fight takes place, Tim will have to work very hard not to go down in boxing history as the “son of Kostya”, with whom they are serious rivals. he is not interested in entering the ring.
