‘Too tough for his own good’: Why Tszyu’s warrior spirit may have cost him Crawford

The only Australian to have set foot in the ring with Terence Crawford believes hubris may have cost Tim Tszyu his shot at boxing’s pound-for-pound king, declaring: “It’s better to be safe than sorry – and now they’re sorry.”

Tszyu will spend the next two weeks digesting his first career loss on a Hawaiian holiday before returning to training and beginning his atonement for Sunday’s shock defeat to Sebastian Fundora in Las Vegas, which cost him his WBO super welterweight title.

A showdown with Crawford beckoned in the event of a victory, but the fight swung on an accidental elbow from Fundora in the second round which opened a deep wound on Tszyu’s forehead, sending blood gushing down his face and totally obscuring his vision for the remainder of the contest.

Jeff Horn, who lost his WBO welterweight strap to Crawford in 2018 and was sent into retirement by Tszyu two years later, told this masthead both Tszyu and his corner team needed to take blame for the result by not yielding to the reality of the cut.

Horn said Tszyu, now 24-1, should have “swallowed his ego” and told his team to call it off – and though Horn admitted he probably would have done the same thing if he was in his shoes, he believed his corner would have overruled him had they been unable to stop the bleeding.

“I guess it’s on both sides,” Horn said.

Tim Tszyu suffered his first career loss on Sunday.Credit: Getty

“Tim’s probably too tough for his own good, but his team should have just said, ‘Hey, we can’t stop this bleeding.’ The safer, more sensible decision would have been to just stop the fight, and then we’ll do it again, even though it’s frustrating.

“He has a loss on his record instead. I don’t understand. I think that was a little bit of inexperience from everyone at that point. They were just so confident because they’re getting the guy on late notice, and Tim feels like he’s absolutely unstoppable, and he can beat everyone – and I understand that, that feeling that you have, but it’s this guy’s life [Fundora]. It’s his breakthrough fight. If he sees that this is his opportunity, and [the blood is] affecting Tim, he’s going to fight out of his skin.”

Tszyu’s next move is unclear. There are conflicting reports on the nature of a supposed rematch clause with Fundora, whose promoter Sampson Lewkowicz said the agreement was only “verbal” and that Tszyu would have to earn the right to face the new champion through at least one more fight.

Tszyu’s promoter, George Rose, insisted his client had the option for a rematch.

Terence Crawford works his jab on the way to victory over Jeff Horn in 2018.Credit: AP

Errol Spence Jnr entered the ring after the bout and offered to take on Fundora next – but for that to happen, Fundora would have to vacate his title because Crawford has been installed as his mandatory challenger, it was revealed by the WBO on Monday.

Crawford is moving up a weight class after unifying the welterweight division, and posted on X after the fight on Sunday: “You lost sir gotta work yo way back up.” It was unclear if that message was directed at Tszyu, who called him out after losing, or at Spence, who he beat in his last fight almost a year ago.

Crawford has also previously won all four belts in the light welterweight division, the first fighter to do so since Tszyu’s father, Kostya, in 2004.

Horn believes Tszyu’s size and range would make him an interesting match-up for Crawford, but his hopes of taking him on had been set back at least 12 months.

“In the short term, that fight, I doubt will happen now,” Horn said. “It’s a super-fight when Tim was on top of the world, and unstoppable, and people are like, ‘Well, who’s going to beat him?’ But now Crawford’s probably thinking it doesn’t really sell now. You’re coming off a loss, people don’t really necessarily want to see that.

“Crawford is probably a little bit more well-rounded than Tim, but Tim is definitely learning every fight, and I think he’s getting better and better as time goes. The whole team’s going to take something from this fight and go, ‘OK, well, we could have just stopped it and played it safe.’ And Tim could have just swallowed his ego a little bit.’”

Meanwhile, Australian boxing legend Jeff Fenech said he had no doubt Tszyu would have beaten Fundora were it not for the cut.

“We watched 12 rounds that we didn’t need to watch,” Fenech said. “Tim didn’t complain. Everyone knows how tough Tim is. Did we need to see it? No, we didn’t. If I’m his trainer … they couldn’t stop the bleeding, they couldn’t control it, it was going in his eyes.

“[I would have] called the doctor and said, ‘He can’t see, it’s in his eyes,’ and that’s it. Simple.”

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