Hall of Famer and former undisputed world champion, Kostya Tszyu, is very pleased with the progression of his oldest son, unbeaten junior middleweight Tim Tszyu.
Tszyu will make the first defense of his first WBO interim-junior middleweight title on Saturday night against Carlos Ocampo at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre [Sunday in Australia].
Should Tszyu prevail, he is going to collide with undisputed world champion Jermell Charlo.
Kostya believes his son has silenced a lot of critics who felt the younger Tszyu was nothing more than a boxer with a famous last name.
“He’s the man,” Kostya said from Russia to WA Today. “He has proven to the world, to all the people that never believed in him, that believed it was only his name. I’m proud of it.”
Kostya, who is no stranger to facing Mexican opponents, is backing his son to overcome Ocampo in a tough fight.
“I’m expecting the brawler, who is coming to win the fight,” Kostya said. “It’s not going to be easy. I did tell Tim that the fight will be hard. Don’t underestimate him, you have to be 100 percent ready for the fight, otherwise he can expect some surprises.”
Tim Tszyu is coming off a big knockout win over former world champion Tony Harrison, which took place back in March. It was the biggest win of Tim’s career.
Kostya was very pleased with that performance.
“I’m very pleased to see the way he fought, methodically, step by step, just like I did against Gonzalez,” Kostya said. “I think he is not [just] getting better, he is getting smarter every time.
“Let’s have that [Ocampo] fight first [before we talk about Charlo] and see how we go. It is undisputed [with Charlo], but at the same time not one by one. I did my way by winning one title, then another, then another one. Over here, it’s only one opponent.”