Why it’s back to the drawing board for Tim Tszyu after shattering loss

The longevity of Tim Tszyu’s career will come into question after his loss to Bakhram Murtazaliev. In the short-term, the Aussie can now forget facing boxing’s big names, writes Jamie Pandaram.

This devastating loss will pose serious questions around Tim Tszyu’s career and longevity.

He had planned to fight for the next decade, accumulating titles and moving up in divisions, but he simply won’t be able to do so if he absorbs the type of punishment Bakhram Murtazaliev dished out in Orlando.

From the opening exchanges, it was obvious that Tszyu was stiff and tense. Murtazaliev was able to immediately relax into a quick jab.

What we do know is that Murtazaliev is highly underrated. No longer. The entire super-welterweight division is now on notice that this Russian is a monster who can unify belts.

But Tszyu was also guilty of underestimating his undefeated rival.

Instead of using his excellent movement, footwork and head movement, Tszyu just tried to walk Murtazaliev down and trade big shots.

Murtazaliev put on a show. Picture: Tom Pombart / No Limit Boxing

That was his undoing, because in the second round he went for a hook but Murtazaliev’s left hook landed first, flooring the Australian.

A lesser man would not have been able to rise back up.

Tszyu did, but from that moment he was in survival mode because his legs were gone.

Another left dropped him, and at the end of the second as he was wobbling around the ring he was dropped by a right hand.

Somehow Tszyu made it to the bell.

But in the third, he was flattened by another powerful left, rose yet again, but the ensuing barrage forced his corner to throw in the towel.

So now he has two successive defeats, following his title loss to Sebastian Fundora earlier this year.

Forget the big fights against Terence Crawford, Errol Spence Jr and Saul Alvarez.

Now it will even be tough for Tszyu to lure Erickson Lubin into the ring in December as was planned, because he cannot dangle a world title belt in front of him.

Tszyu has the skills and heart to bounce back. But how will he recover from the mental scars, and physical damage, of this battering?

That is a factor a fighter can never control.

Every boxer will admit once they are retired that they were never the same after being knocked out.

Maybe Tszyu has been irreparably changed by the wounds against Fundora, when he took more shots than in any fight of his career as blood poured into his eye and he was fighting blind.

He came into the Orlando ring wanting to blast out Murtazaliev, clearly with no interest in another 12-round war, and in the opening exchanges feared he was cut on the head again. He pawed at his scalp numerous times, fearing the worst.

Tszyu was never in the fight. Picture: Tom Pombart / No Limit Boxing

Then he tried to blast out the IBF champion and got caught. His courage only set him up for more punishment, the kind that shortens careers.

Tszyu is back to the drawing board.

He has a big enough profile to demand major fights against well-credentialed opponents in the US and Australia.

But the real superstars in his division can now ignore him.

Tszyu has immaculate control of every aspect of his life, from eating to sleeping to training.

But how his body recovers from this stoppage, for his next fight and those beyond, is an issue Tszyu has lost control of.

Originally published as Why it’s back to the drawing board for Tim Tszyu after shattering loss