{"id":321908,"date":"2025-12-18T00:41:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T00:41:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/321908\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T00:41:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T00:41:19","slug":"tim-tszyu-defiantly-responds-to-doubts-over-his-boxing-future-with-clinical-victory-im-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/321908\/","title":{"rendered":"Tim Tszyu defiantly responds to doubts over his boxing future with clinical victory: ‘I’m back’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tim Tszyu has delivered a defiant response to doubts over his future in the sport.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Tuesday night at the Sydney<\/a> Entertainment Centre, the Australian fighter bounced back from his world title defeat by Sebastian Fundora in July to seal a clinical points victory against undefeated American fighter\u00a0Anthony Velazquez.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was a must-win fight for the Australian, who came into the meeting having won just one of his last four fights, and while he couldn’t get the stoppage,\u00a0the\u00a031-year-old outclassed his opponent, putting on a boxing clinic.<\/p>\n

After claiming victory, the Aussie was pressed on whether he had considered retiring, but delivered a blunt response.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘I’m back. I’m f***ing back,’ he said after sealing victory.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘I’ve got the belts in my mind’s eye, but one step at a time.<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\" <\/p>\n

‘It’s a long ride. You never know where we can go.’<\/p>\n

The proud Puerto Rican-American had been undefeated in his previous 18 professional bouts, winning 15 of them by knockout.<\/p>\n

But while he was unable to land a 19th KO of his career, Tszyu proved in another league fighting at catchweight and at a more comfortable 70-plus kilograms for the first time.<\/p>\n

The fight was stopped at the start of the seventh round after Tszyu opened up a brutal-looking cut on his opponent’s forehead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Doctors stepped up to Velazquez’s corner and allowed him to continue and he gallantly bounced back, striking the Australian on multiple occasions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But whenever the 29-year-old fighter attacked, Tszyu, a far more experienced fighter, dished up a response.<\/p>\n

Tszyu had pressed on his opponent during the later rounds and looked as though he could have sealed a stoppage victory.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, after a difficult year, the Aussie insisted he was simply looking to regain his confidence in the ring and wasn’t looking to pursue a knockout.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Boxing is a roller coaster of a ride, emotions up and down, but I’m very blessed to be in this position right now,’ Tszyu said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘I wanna thank everyone from the bottom of my heart, my previous team, my current team, thanks to everyone who stuck by me. I appreciate the love.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

‘I really just wanted to feel comfortable in there.<\/p>\n

‘Not go for the KO and get reckless. In the past that’s what did for me<\/p>\n

‘I wanted to take my time, use the jab. I’ve got all the skills in the world.<\/p>\n

‘Scorecard of 10 rounds, pretty happy with that.’<\/p>\n

He put his foot on the gas in the eighth round, landing a jab-hook combo that left Velazquez reeling before he backed himself up against the ropes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Velazquez struck back in the later rounds by landing a few body shots to his opponent, it was largely one-way traffic for Tszyu, who commanded the centre of the ring.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The fight would go the full 10 rounds, with Velazquez giving everything in the final exchange, swinging wildly to try and claim a last-ditch win.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But it was a total shutout by Tszyu, with the judges scoring the contest\u00a0100-90,\u00a0100-90, 100-91.<\/p>\n

While Tszyu was happy with his performance, his long-standing rival Michael Zerafa issued a damning assessment of his performance.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘I feel like old Tim is better. If you’re fighting like that, you’re not going back to the top,’ Zerafa said after the fight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"While <\/p>\n

While Tszyu was happy with his performance, his long-standing rival Michael Zerafa (pictured) issued a damning assessment of his performance<\/p>\n

\"Footy <\/p>\n

Footy great Latrell Mitchell (pictured) was also seen ring side watching on the fight\u00a0<\/p>\n

Zerafa had been one of several notable faces in the audience, that included footy stars Wayne Bennett and Latrell Mitchell.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘I don’t say that as a hater,’ Zerafa added, clarifying his comments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘There are killers in our division and doing that you won’t survive. I wanted him to come out and make a statement that Tim is back and build to a bigger fight.<\/p>\n

‘I wasn’t impressed.’<\/p>\n

Tszyu (24-0), his younger brother Nikita (11-0) and their Hall of Famer father Kostya (18-0) have never lost a professional fight in Australia.<\/p>\n

The trio’s combined 53-0 ledger remains the stuff of legend.<\/p>\n

The onus will be on Nikita next to maintain the proud family record when he squares off with mouthy Melburnian Michael Zerafa in a domestic blockbuster in Brisbane on January 16. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The pair engaged in a spicy face-off on Wednesday night, Zerafa letting Nikita know “he needs to be punished” as he looks to settle a long-running score with the Tszyu clan.<\/p>\n

Zerafa will take on Nikita on January 16.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tim Tszyu has delivered a defiant response to doubts over his future in the sport.\u00a0 On Tuesday night…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,97,217,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-321908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-dailymail","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}