next Wednesday\u2019s headliner against Velazquez<\/a>, who boasts a KO ratio above 80 per cent.<\/p>\nWhile the American and his team only arrived in Sydney on Friday after their own travel chaos, head coach Hector Bermudez wasted no time taking the big stick to both Tszyu and his new corner.<\/p>\n
Tim Tszyu and trainer Pedro Diaz in Miami. Picture: SuppliedSource: Supplied<\/p>\n
Apart from branding the 31-year-old Sydneysider a quitter, and shot, Bermudez also slammed Coach Diaz \u2014 branding him a mentor best suited for amateurs who has continually been \u201chired and fired\u201d.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, the New Yorker responsible for training five world champions also warned Tszyu had erred by sacking his longtime head coach Igor Goloubev, and suggested there were no less than 10 US-based coaches who would\u2019ve been a better fit than Diaz. <\/p>\n
Yet when quizzed on the Diaz criticism, Tszyu\u2019s new manager Darcy Ellis asked how anyone could question a coach responsible for not only training over 20 world champions, but also more than 20 Olympic medallists.<\/p>\n
\u201cI realise Hector Bermudez is a respected trainer and boasts several champions himself,\u201d Ellis started. \u201cAnd now he\u2019s arrived here in Australia with Anthony Hernandez, who we know is an undefeated fighter and definitely a big puncher.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo you have to give both these guys their props.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut at the same time, how can anyone question the credentials of Pedro Diaz? He\u2019s coached more than 20 world champions. And more than 20 Olympic medallists.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow many trainers have a resume like that?<\/p>\n
“Going to quit again”: Coach blasts Tim | 05:02<\/p>\n
\u201cSo anyone talking negatively about Pedro, the only thing I\u2019d say is \u2018show us your resume\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not being disrespectful.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut unless you\u2019ve trained over 20 world champions, and another 20 Olympic medallists, I\u2019m not sure you\u2019re qualified to question his worth to Tim Tszyu. <\/p>\n
\u201cSame as Hector can accuse Tim of being a quitter, being shot, whatever.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we know this is a fighter who keeps turning up. Who still wants the biggest challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we know he\u2019s going to prove who he is next Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause having seen the footage of Tim sparring in Miami \u2013 while we won\u2019t talk too much about it \u2013 I can tell you it really is the best he\u2019s ever looked.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd obviously sparring is sparring. It\u2019s not a fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut going off everything that has been happening over there with Pedro, you\u2019re about to see a very different Tim Tszyu.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet while Tszyu may have enjoyed an incredibly positive fight build, the fighter\u2019s new corner has suffered a fight week blow following news Serbian assistant coach Stefan Hubert will not be ringside on Wednesday night due to his visa taking longer than expected to be passed by officials.<\/p>\n
Tim Tszyu will fight Anthony Velasquez. Picture: No Limit Boxing\/Mark KolbeSource: Supplied<\/p>\n
As first revealed by Fox Sports Australia, two of Tszyu\u2019s new corner \u2013 Diaz and cutman Osvaldo Nordelo \u2013 will be making a late dash into Sydney on Tuesday morning after first cornering WBC cruiserweight contender Noel Mikaelyan this weekend.<\/p>\n
As a result, Diaz had hand-picked Hubert to travel from Belgrade, Serbia to assist Tszyu for the final 10 days of camp.<\/p>\n
However, with visa issues initially delaying the assistant coach\u2019s arrival, and now likely leaving him grounded in Serbia altogether, Tszyu is expected to call into the corner one of his early amateur coaches Khalil \u2018Killa\u2019 Saab \u2013 who has been assisting with preparations this week.<\/p>\n
Tszyu will also be accompanied to the ring by his grandfather Boris \u2013 with whom he has never lost either professionally or as an amateur \u2013 while Iferd is also a strong chance of being the fourth man ringside on fight night.<\/p>\n
At a media event inside Tszyu\u2019s gym at Rockdale PCYC last Friday, the man who has shadowed Tszyu for his entire camp in the US found himself in an uncharacteristic war of words with not only Velasquez, but also his coach and younger brother. <\/p>\n
Ellis, meanwhile, also responded to claims Team Tszyu has picked the wrong man for his first fight back after being retired on his stool by Sebastian Fundora.<\/p>\n
“I don’t even know who the f*** he is!” | 04:08<\/p>\n
As part of his rant on Friday, Bernudez warned: \u201cWhen you\u2019re trying to rebuild a fighter, you don\u2019t pick a puncher \u2026 and this kid (Velazquez) got dynamite in both hands. <\/p>\n
\u201cTim is a throwback fighter and always wants the biggest challenges,\u201d Ellis said.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously right at the moment, Tim is looking for the type of fights that will put him back into world title contention and Velasquez brings the resume for that.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven where Tim is at, he\u2019s actually the perfect test.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, Tszyu also said he had no interest in rematching Harrison, despite the American telling Main Event this week he was looking for a second shot at the man who bested him for the interim WBO title.<\/p>\n
But as for Harrison facing little brother if he beats Michael Zerafa in January?<\/p>\n
\u201cThat would be interesting,\u201d Tszyu told The Punch Podcast. \u201cWould be an interesting fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cNikita is a rangy fighter. And Harrison is a really good boxer. So really good fight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tim Tszyu\u2019s new management team has vigorously defended the fighter\u2019s decision to hire famed Olympic coach Pedro Diaz…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344977,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[190897,2095,190910,190898,44177,169017,187511,24164,64,75771,63,689,190905,802,190895,190907,190908,117844,190890,2057,9216,190896,2755,174556,5330,181015,11831,190891,190900,131086,56535,190903,5140,11850,673,190909,2782,73291,2041,2067,677,190904,43756,62367,190889,3595,85,190901,190899,670,5942,67671,187514,190894,190892,190893,190902,2614,190906,20591,28370],"class_list":["post-344976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-amateur-coaches","tag-america","tag-american-telling","tag-american-trainer","tag-anthony-hernandez","tag-anthony-velasquez","tag-anthony-velazquez","tag-assistant-coach","tag-au","tag-aussie-boxing","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-boris","tag-boxing","tag-coach-diaz","tag-cruiserweight-contender","tag-cuban-maestro","tag-darcy-ellis","tag-drama-means","tag-europe","tag-fight-night","tag-fight-night-entourage","tag-florida","tag-geoff-smith","tag-head-coach","tag-hector-bermudez","tag-igor-goloubev","tag-longtime-head-coach","tag-man-ringside","tag-management-team","tag-mark-kolbe","tag-media-event","tag-miami","tag-michael-zerafa","tag-new-south-wales","tag-new-yorker","tag-nick-walshaw","tag-noel-mikaelyan","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-oceania","tag-positive-fight-build","tag-rockdale","tag-serbia","tag-slanging-match","tag-southern-europe","tag-sports","tag-stefan-hubert","tag-straight-championship-losses","tag-sydney","tag-tim-tszyu","tag-tom-parrish","tag-trainer-pedro","tag-travel-chaos","tag-undefeated-american","tag-undefeated-american-puncher","tag-unforeseen-visa-issues","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-visa-issues","tag-world-champions","tag-world-title-contention"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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