Tim Tszyu believes he delivered a message to Jermell Charlo by dropping and stopping the only opponent who has beaten Charlo.
Tszyu looked directly into the camera and expressed his intentions to the undisputed 154-pound champion after he beat Tony Harrison by ninth-round technical knockout Sunday afternoon in Sydney, Australia.
“The message was sent clearly,” Tszyu said when asked in the ring to speak to Charlo. “You know what’s up. You know what’s next. I’m coming. I’m coming to Vegas! I’m coming to America!”
Sydney’s Tszyu indeed secured his shot at the four championships Charlo owns in his next bout by defeating Detroit’s Harrison in their fight for the WBO interim junior middleweight title. Charlo called the action Saturday night in the United States from Showtime’s studio in Manhattan, along with three of the network’s announcers – Brian Custer, Steve Farhood and Abner Mares.
Though he was surprised by Harrison’s lack of movement and resistance, Houston’s Charlo said that he didn’t see anything from Tszyu that he didn’t expect in their main event at Qudos Bank Arena in Tszyu’s hometown. Charlo also laughed and replied “absolutely not” when Farhood mentioned that it was unlikely that Charlo would fight Tszyu in Australia.
Houston’s Charlo (35-1-1, 19 KOs) and Tszyu (22-0, 16 KOs), who is the mandatory challenger for Charlo’s WBO belt, were scheduled to fight January 28 at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino’s Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas. Premier Boxing Champions and Showtime announced December 24 that Charlo-Tszyu was postponed because Charlo fractured two bones in his left hand while sparring several days earlier.
The 32-year-old Charlo revealed Saturday night before the Tszyu-Harrison bout began that his recovery is on schedule and that he expects to be able to box before the end of the summer. Showtime will televise the Charlo-Tszyu fight when it is rescheduled.
Tszyu’s relatively easy victory over Harrison (29-4-1, 21 KOs) was the most impressive performance of his six-year professional career. The son of former junior welterweight champ Kostya Tszyu regularly landed the harder punches and persistently pressured Harrison throughout their bout.
Two right hands by Tszyu hurt Harrison badly with just over a minute to go in the ninth round. Tszyu followed a disoriented Harrison to the ropes, where he hammered Harrison with several right uppercuts and dropped him with a right-left combination.
Harrison fell to the canvas with 39 seconds to go in the ninth round. He answered referee Danrex Tapdasan’s count at eight, but Tapdasan stopped their bout because he didn’t like how Harrison responded to his commands.
The official time of the stoppage was 2:43 of the ninth round. Though Tszyu appeared to be in complete control of their fight when he dropped and stopped Harrison, all three judges – Hungary’s Zoltan Enyedi (77-75), Japan’s Katsuhiko Nakamura (77-75) and Canada’s Benoit Roussel (77-75) – had Tszyu in front only by the same close score entering the ninth round.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.