Hear: Tim Tszyu not ready for elite level, needs confidence boost

Promoter Eddie Hearn says he is not sure if Tim Tszyu is “elite level” after seeing his back-to-back defeats in 2024 against IBF junior middleweight champion Bakhram Murtazaliev and Sebastian Fundora.

Rebuilding Tszyu

Hearn felt that Tszyu’s promoters believed he was better than he actually was and put him in fights that were above his level. He has now suffered back-to-back defeats, and his career is on the rocks. Eddie says if he were Tszyu’s promoter, he would bring him back to Australia and give him a “confidence” booster type fight. He needs to be rebuilt in terms of his confidence.

The way Tszyu (24-2, 19 KOs) was obliterated by Murtazaliev in three rounds on Oct. 19 was a red flag that he is not fighting at the elite level. There were no adjustments made by former WBO 154-lb champion Tszyu after the first takedown, and he came into the fight with a bad game plan to fight one of the best punchers in the division.

“I’m a big Tim Tszyu fan. I think he is a great fighter. Sometimes you can believe your own hype a little bit as a fighter, and I think they felt Tim was unbeatable,” Eddie Hearn told Jai McAllister’s. YouTube channeltalks about former WBO junior middleweight champion Tim Tszyu’s management that matches him a little too tough against Bakhram Murtazaliev.

“I really admire that they took that fight, and they should have taken that fight (Bakhram) because it’s for a world championship. But nobody really wants to fight that guy because he’s a serious guy with no value. So, if you get beat by him, you’re kind of 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 big difference between fighting in Australia and the Australian market and then going out on the world stage and facing elite opposition. You saw it against (Sebastian) Fundora, and he (Tszyu) was very unfortunate in that fight with the injury and everything,” Hearn said.

Tsyu will need to develop as more than a boxer as there are fighters in the 154-lb division with better offensive ability than him. Some of them, like Murtazaliev, Serhii Bohachuk and Vergil Ortiz Jr, have just as good power, if not better. It is worrying that Tim made no adjustments in either of his last two fights against Bakhram and Fundora when things went badly for him. He just kept plowing ahead, walking into shots and getting hit.

“But you can’t just walk through people at that level,” Hearn said of Tszyu. “You have to be nicer than that, and Tim is built from that. I love watching Tim Tszyu. He’s very, very exciting, but you don’t really want to have too many fights like that. It’s really going to shorten your career, and it’s going to be interesting to see what they do with him when he comes back.”

One could see before Tim’s fight with Murtazaliev that he was going to have problems with this 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 found out that they are much better than those flawed guys, and now his career is suffering for his mistake.

Elite level gap

“I think the unknown about Tim Tszyu is, is he truly elite level,” Hearn said. “He’s 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 is no shame in that. Sometimes you step up to that level, and you’re not good enough.”

It’s clear that Tszyu isn’t an elite-level fighter, but Hearn is diplomatic in not telling it like it is. He is a contender level fighter at the middleweight level, but nowhere near the top. If you put Tszyu in with former 154-lb champions Serhii Bohachuk and Israil Madrimov, it will end badly for him.

“If I was his promoter, I’d probably fight him here (Australia) and get him a confidence win against a top 15 guy, and then I’d go back to America. One thing you know. He should watch TV, Tim Tszyu. He’s not going to struggle to get opportunities because people think they can beat him, and he’s great to watch,” Hearn said.