‘Don’t mention that name’: Why Tim Tszyu won’t chase Australian grudge match
Vanquished ex-world champion Tim Tszyu insists he’s still an “international fighter” and has dismissed a showdown with Australian arch-rival Michael Zerafa.
Tszyu suffered an ugly, one-sided defeat in his October IBF super-welterweight clash with Bakhram Murtazaliev in Florida, his camp throwing in the towel in the third round.
Chechen Murtazaliev floored Tszyu three times in the second round alone with some ferocious punching to leave his career in limbo.
But the Sydneysider, who is set to marry next week, said he intended to climb back in the ring to chase another belt.
“I still feel like I belong at the top level,” Tszyu said on Thursday.
“The loss was to a world champion, someone that’s not a ‘bum’.
“I think the expectation is that people just think that because of my performances and what I’ve done, that I’m supposed to just annihilate everyone.
“But when you take on the very, very best in the divisions, you’re going to expect to get hit and honestly, it was just one shot.
“I think it was a left hook or something like that but I guess I didn’t see it coming and I just never really recovered.”
Tszyu said he hadn’t watched the fight back but had felt “superhuman” going into the fight with his preparation first-rate.
“I’ve never watched my dad’s fight, the Ricky Hatton fight, back and I’ve never watched the Fundora fight back so I’m not really expecting to watch this one back either.
“It’s not a feeling I want to relive again.
“I sort of just brush it on the past and move on to the present and the future.”
Tszyu suffered a controversial loss to Sebastian Fundora in March when the towering American’s elbow split Tszyu’s scalp, making the Las Vegas fight a bloody mess.
Fundora added Tszyu’s WBO title to his WBC strap and said this week the Australian was down the pecking order for a rematch after failing to win the IBF title.
“Hey, if he gets a belt [we can fight again]” Fundora told Boxingscene.com.
“I was hoping he’d get the IBF with the last fight that he fought, but things didn’t go his way.
“The only reason he wanted to fight us is we were bringing the WBC belt for the unification. It has to make sense to me.”
Tszyu said he would continue to chase the big dogs and brushed off talk of a fight with long-time foe Zerafa.
“No, don’t mention that name,” he said.
“I’ve always been an international fighter — I do want to come back to Australia but that man doesn’t deserve to be on this type of stage, so let him dwell.
“The show goes on, the world titles will come and I’ll be back fighting under the biggest and the brightest lights possible.”
AAP
