The brutal five minutes back in March that may have sealed Tim Tszyu’s fate and career

A gruesome five minute period in Tim Tszyu’s loss to Sebastian Fundora back in March planted the seed for his brutal loss on Sunday and those five minutes could have destructive impacts on his career, life and Australian boxing.

The seeds for Tim Tszyu’s shocking third round defeat to Bakhram Murtazaliev were planted in a chaotic five minute period at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas in March.

Those were the five minutes between the end of the second round – when Tszyu picked up a gruesome cut that not even an experienced surgeon could have fixed – and the start of the fourth round, when the fight could have been stopped as a no-contest rather than a loss.

It’s a five minute stretch that could have changed his career, his life, and the course of Australian boxing forever.

In those five minutes, it was decided that Tszyu could continue fighting.

Which meant that for half an hour he fought with blood dripping into his eyes.

Tim Tszyu was blinded in his fight with Sebastian Fundora. Picture: Getty Images

They say it’s the punches you don’t see coming that do the most damage.

Tszyu was half blind and barely able to see anything, let alone the whip-like jabs from the two-metre tall Fundora.

It’s only the Aussie’s incredible heart that allowed him to nearly pull off an unimaginable upset.

But at what cost?

It was a brutal loss on Sunday afternoon. Picture: Getty Images

It cannot be overstated how much that bloody beating took out of him. Against Murtazaliev, it appeared as though he didn’t have the punch resistance that served him so well against Brian Mendoza and Tony Harrison last year.

And Murtazaliev isn’t known as a fearsome knockout artist.

While the physical scars from that cut may have healed, perhaps the mental scars still remain.

After a first round head clash against Murtazaliev, Tszyu pawed at his dome, checking for blood. There wasn’t any, but the knee jerk reaction was a sign of where his head was at.

His build-up was hardly ideal either. To be fair, with dog bites, opponent changes and other injuries, it rarely is.

But this one felt even more chaotic.

Hurricane Milton threatened to see the fight moved to Las Vegas last week.

Then a series of unfortunate incidents meant he went into the bout with only one member of his corner who has ever worked one of his fights before – uncle and trainer, Igor Goloubev.

For a boxer who is normally so methodical and calculated, this fight lacked the efficient planning of most of his other camps.

Less than an hour after his younger brother Nikita threw in the towel to save him from taking more punishment, Tszyu said he needed to take some time to find answers.

Those five minutes between rounds two and four against Fundora is a good place to start.

Originally published as The brutal five minutes back in March that may have sealed Tim Tszyu’s fate and career