Tim Tszyu is a man on a mission.<\/p>\n
He’s not unique in that aspect. Every boxer is the same.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Focus directed on the job at hand, honing everything in on that next fight.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The most important fight.<\/p>\n
The redemption fight.<\/p>\n
“The typical thing is that the next one is always the most important,” Tszyu (25-2) tells ABC Sport before he left Australia for the USA earlier this month.<\/p>\n
“But this one’s got a little bit more meaning towards it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tim Tszyu has been able to focus on the unique challenge that Sebastian Fundora poses. (Supplied: Premier Boxing Champions\/Ryan Hafey)<\/p>\n
“The fact that what’s happened in the past, the history, and the newest chapter that’s about to be written.<\/p>\n
“It’s a big part of my life.”<\/p>\n
Tszyu is, of course, talking about his upcoming trip to Las Vegas, when he will meet Sebastian Fundora (22-1-1) for the second time in his career<\/a>, at the MGM Grand.<\/p>\n Tszyu’s last trip to Vegas did not go to plan.<\/p>\n Now he needs to put it right.<\/p>\n The loss of his WBO super welterweight title, a defeat paid for in copious amounts of blood<\/a>, is in the past.<\/p>\n Tim Tszyu was badly cut against Sebastian Fundora. (Getty Images: Anadolu\/Tayfun Coskun)<\/p>\n “What could have been? Who knows. I don’t look to it, I really just focus on the present,” Tszyu says.<\/p>\n “The first one was one hell of a spectacle and a fight to be remembered for the ages.<\/p>\n “That’s why we’re gunna come back and re-live the memory.”<\/p>\n The bloodbath of the T-Mobile Arena saw Fundora add Tszyu’s WBO strap to his WBC crown.<\/p>\n For those that need reminding, the towering American \u2014 a late call up to fight Tszyu on just 11 days notice \u2014 opened a sickening gash in Tszyu’s head in just the second round of what turned into a 12-round epic 16 months ago.<\/p>\n Fundora has, in recent weeks, argued that the cut had little impact on Tszyu and that the Australian could see him just fine for the rest of the contest that the American won by a desperately narrow, split decision.<\/p>\n The evidence of anyone who has seen the fight would suggest that Tszyu is correct in calling out that claim as “bulls***”.<\/p>\n Tim Tszyu is not looking back, only forward, and is ready to silence the doubters. (Getty Images: Darrian Traynor)<\/p>\n Nevertheless, Tszyu says that despite losing his world title to Fundora, he was still able to take plenty from the fight.<\/p>\n “The fact that I was able to show my true self, and who I am as a person, with my heart, my determination, the values that I’ve been bought up with, I got to show it on an audience for the whole world to see,” Tszyu says.<\/p>\n “That’s what I’m about.<\/p>\n “I think, in life, every lesson you learn is from hard failures, from hard situations that helps you grow as a person.\u00a0<\/p>\n “That gash unfortunately made me lose, but it turned me into a different person.”<\/p>\n There was far less to take from his next trip to America.<\/p>\n There’s no way of softening what IBF champion Bakhram Murtazaliev inflicted on Tszyu in Florida last October last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n Tim Tszyu was brutalised by Bakhram Murtazaliev in Orlando last year. (Getty Images: Alex Menendez)<\/p>\n It was a savage beat down, the Aussie being knocked down three times in the second round and once in round three before the towel was thrown in.<\/p>\n If the Fundora loss left physical scars, the monstering from Murtazaliev exposed some of the mental ones<\/a>, as well as adding a few more for good measure.<\/p>\n It was a brutalisation that few, if any, saw coming.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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