Tony Harrison laughed off Tim Tszyu’s intensity as they stared at one another on stage Saturday afternoon in Sydney, Australia.
The former WBC super welterweight champion seemingly doesn’t think Tszyu is ready for this type of fight. He intends to prove it Sunday afternoon at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney.
A much more serious Tszyu stepped on the scale at 153½ pounds for their 154-pound championship match. Harrison officially weighed 153½ pounds as well.
Tszyu, 28, and Harrison, 32, will fight for the WBO interim junior middleweight title. The Tszyu-Harrison winner is expected to fight fully unified 154-pound champion Jermell Charlo next, probably sometime in July.
Sydney’s Tszyu (21-0, 15 KOs), who is listed by most sportsbooks as nearly a 3-1 favorite over Harrison, is the WBO’s mandatory challenger for one of Charlo’s championships. Once Charlo fractured two bones in his left hand, however, Tszyu’s team urged the WBO to allow him to fight for its interim title, rather than having him wait for Charlo’s hand to heal.
Tszyu thought he would fight Russian contender Bakhram Murtazaliev (21-0, 15 KOs), but Murtazaliev, who is ranked second by the WBO, turned down the fight. Detroit’s Harrison (29-3-1, 21 KOs), who is rated third among the WBO’s 154-pound contenders, happily accepted a chance to knock off Tszyu and earn a third fight against Charlo.
Houston’s Charlo (35-1-1, 19 KOs) was supposed to defend his IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO belts versus Tszyu on January 28 at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino’s Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas. Their postponement announcement was made on Christmas Eve, a few days after Charlo hurt his hand while sparring.
Showtime will televise Tszyu-Harrison on Saturday night in the United States. That one-bout broadcast is set to start at 10:45 p.m. ET.
Their fight will headline a FOXTEL Main Event pay-per-view show in Australia. That telecast is scheduled to begin at 12 p.m. AEDT.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.