Promoter Eddie Hearn says he is not sure if Tim Tszyu is “at elite level” after watching his back-to-back defeats in 2024 to IBF junior middleweight champion Bakhram Murtazaliev and Sebastian Fundora.

Reconstruction of Tszyu

Hearn feels Tszyu’s promoters thought he was better than he actually was and put him in fights above his level. He has now suffered back-to-back defeats, and his career is on the rocks. Eddie says if he were Tszyu’s promoter, he would bring him back to Australia and give him a “confidence” type of fight. He needs to rebuild his confidence.

The way Tszyu (24-2, 19 KOs) was obliterated in three rounds by Murtazaliev on October 19 was a red flag that he is not fighting at an elite level. Former WBO 154-pound champion Tszyu made no adjustments after the first knockdown, and he entered the fight with a poor game plan of brawling with one of the best punchers in the division.

“I’m a big fan of Tim Tszyu. I think he’s a great fighter. Sometimes, you can believe some of your hype as a fighter, and I think they felt Tim was unbeatable,” Eddie Hearn told Jay McAllister. YouTube channeltalks about the management of Tim Tszyu, the former WBO junior middleweight champion, which was a bit harsh against Bakhram Murtazaliev.

“I’m really impressed that they took that fight, they should have taken that fight [Bakhram] Because it’s for the World Series. But no one really wants to fight this guy because he’s a serious, worthless guy. So, if you get beaten by him, you kind of like it, but I like the fact that they did it, and I like the fact that he’s a real fighter.

“Sometimes, you can get carried away. There’s a big difference between fighting in Australia and the Australian market and then going out on the world stage and facing elite opposition. I’ve seen that against [Sebastian] Fundora, which is [Tszyu] “He wasn’t very lucky in that fight with the injury and everything,” Hearn said.

Tsyu will need to develop more as a boxer because there are fighters in the 154lb division who have better offensive ability than him. Some of them, like Murtazaliev, Serhiy Bohachuk, and Virgil Ortiz Jr., are just as powerful, if not better. It’s alarming that Tim didn’t make any adjustments in either of his last two fights against Buckram and Fundora when things were going poorly for him. He just kept coming forward, walking shots, getting hit.

“But you can’t just go through people at that level,” Hearn said of Tszyu. You have to be nicer than that, and Tim was built on that. I love watching Tim Tszyu. It’s very exciting, but you don’t really want a lot of fights like that. This will shorten your career, and it will be interesting to see what they do with him when he returns.

One could see before Thiem’s ​​fight with Murtazaliev that he was going to have problems with this guy if he didn’t change his style and use a different style. He thought he could knock him out like he did against lesser fighters like Carlos Ocampo, Tony Harrison and Steve Spark. He discovers that they are much better than these flawed people, and now his career is suffering because of his mistake.

Elite level gap

“I think the unknown about Tim Tszyu is whether he is truly at an elite level,” Hearn said. “He is a world-class fighter; There is no doubt about that. But is he really at this level? maybe. I think the jury is out. There’s no shame in that. Sometimes you get to that level, and it’s not good enough.”

Tszyu is clearly not an elite level fighter, but Hearn is being diplomatic by not telling it like it is. He is a contender level fighter at the mid-range level but nowhere near the top. If you put Tszyu with former 154-pound champions Serhiy Bohachuk and Israel Madrimov, it will end badly for him.

“If I was his promoter, I would probably fight him here [Australia]Make him win confidently against one of the top 15 players, and then I will return to America. One thing you know. He’s gotta watch TV, Tim Tszyu. “He won’t struggle to get chances because people think they can beat him, which is great to watch,” Hearn said.