'Stop the fight': boxing great on Tszyu career changer | The Advocate

Tim Tszyu (right) has gained backing from an unlikely corner ahead of his next major fight. Photo: Dean Lewins/AAP PHOTOS

Pound-for-pound legend Terence Crawford has reopened old wounds, claiming Tim Tszyu’s former entourage “messed him up” and potentially changed the course of boxing history.

After retiring last year with an impeccable 42-from-42 record, Crawford made a surprise visit to meet Tszyu in Sydney ahead of the Australian’s latest do-or-die fight on Sunday in Wollongong.

Tszyu is taking on unbeaten Albanian Denis Nurja needing to win to confirm a multi-million-dollar mega bout with American superstar Errol Spence later this year.

But Spence – who in 2017 became the first undisputed world lightweight champion since Tszyu’s Hall of Fame father Kostya 13 years earlier – believes the Sydney slayer would not be at such a precarious juncture had he been managed better.

The fallen world champion famously lost his WBO super-welterweight belt to Sebastian Fundora in a Las Vegas bloodbath in March 2024 after walking into an accidental elbow from the American at the end of round two.

Bleeding uncontrollably from a savage gash to his forehand, Tszyu had dominated the opening rounds and would have been afforded a mandatory rematch on medical grounds if the fight was stopped before round four.

He bravely boxed on and lost a split decision but Crawford suggested that was the beginning of Tszyu’s career spiral.

“On the first fight with Fundora, Tim had him. He had him,” Crawford said at Tszyu Boxing Academy on Wednesday.

Albania's Denis Nurja will take on Tszyu in Wollongong. (Dan Himbrechts/AAP PHOTOS) Albania’s Denis Nurja will take on Tszyu in Wollongong. (Dan Himbrechts/AAP PHOTOS)

“They should have stopped that fight. That was bad coaching.

“He would have been better off if they’d stopped that fight and let him come back the second time, instead of letting him carry on and take that punishment.”

Crawford, who hung up the gloves after winning 18 major world titles in five divisions from lightweight to super-middleweight, also questioned the old Team Tszyu’s decision to fight Bakhram Murtazaliev just six months after the Fundora battering.

The Russian hitman floored Tszyu four times in the first three rounds before Tszyu’s brother Nikita threw in the towel.

Terence Crawford after beating Errol Spence in 2023. (AP PHOTO)

“They shouldn’t have sent him out there with Bakhram in the following fight,” Crawford said.

“Bakhram was just the wrong style and the wrong game plan too.

“They messed him up – and Tim was capable of doing the same thing. It was just the wrong game plan.”

After going undefeated in his first 23 fights before falling first to Fundora, Tszyu subsequently lost a rematch with the so-called Towering Inferno in Vegas last July, leaving the 31-year-old at a career crossroads.

Crawford is backing the home favourite to prevail over Nurja while predicting Spence to win any blockbuster later in 2026 against Tszyu.

“I’ve got Errol,” Crawford said.

“But I think it’d be a good fight for both of them at this stage of their career.

“I’m not 100 per cent confident. I just know the calibre of fighter that Errol is, just like I know the calibre of fighter Tim is.

“Both of them have taken a lot of damage in their career so far, but I just think Errol, skill-wise, just edges it.”

Australian Associated Press