Gradually, Tim Tszyu was backing Jermell Charlo into a corner, even when he didn’t notice it.
The 28-year-old wasn’t even a blip on his radar. Actually, Charlo wasn’t the only one who had no idea who Tszyu was. Most of the division’s top names were clueless about him as a fighter. It wasn’t entirely their fault. Tszyu, for the first six years of his career, fought primarily out of Australia.
He could’ve easily continued that trend, but most would’ve been under the assumption that he’s eschewing the American competition. So, with Tszyu needing to make some waves stateside, he took on Terrell Gausha in his U.S. debut. It wasn’t entirely easy, but Tszyu went on to score a unanimous decision victory.
Fighting once in America was all he needed to get his name buzzing. With recognition finally landing on his lap, Tszyu (23-0, 17 KOs) has been able to make his American counterparts travel to his neck of the woods. Both Tony Harrison and Carlos Ocampo made the trek but were violently beaten down once they crossed the border.
Grabbing those wins was salient but his end game was always to face Charlo, the division’s former undisputed champion. A matchup between them finally seemed as though it was going to take place. That is until Charlo opted to put on 14 pounds of muscle and move up to the super middleweight division.
The WBO sanctioning body wasn’t too pleased with his decision. So, the moment the opening bell rang in his showdown against Alvarez, he was stripped and Tszyu, who held the interim tag, was elevated.
Now, Tszyu is a full-fledged world champion. Well, at least on paper. Although he’ll be introduced as an official titlist when he faces Brian Mendoza this weekend, Tszyu doesn’t have that championship glow. Until he ultimately gets his hands on Charlo, he believes he’ll be devoid of that feeling.
“No, no,” Tszyu told FightHype.com when asked if he feels like a real champion. “I said it before, I’m only content when I beat the man of the division. Everything else will play its part.”