Anthony Velazquez promises to end Tim Tszyu’s career by recreating historic Aussie pain
Puerto Rican boxer Anthony Velazquez has vowed to end Tim Tszyu's career by recreating devastating knockouts his heroes inflicted on Australian fighters.
A supremely confident Anthony Velazquez has ominously promised to end Tim Tszyu’s career by recreating two crushing defeats delivered by the proud Puerto Rican’s idols on a couple of Aussie sluggers.
The biggest and wildest of those moments came courtesy of the greatest Puerto Rican boxer ever, Felix ‘Tito’ Trinidad, who obliterated the late Troy Waters at Madison Square Garden in 1997.
A genuine boxing superstar at the time, Trinidad dropped the game Waters with a left-right combination in the first round at the most famous boxing arena in the world and in the very same super-welterweight division in which Velazquez will face Tszyu on December 17 in Sydney.
The ‘Glamour with the Hammer’ beat the count that night, but Trinidad battered him mercilessly against the ropes, dropped him again and forced referee Arthur Mercante to stop the bout.
The second moment came 18 years later and just a few kilometres away, when Miguel Cotto dominated Daniel Geale at the Barclays Centre in Brooklyn, knocking him down twice in the fourth round en route to a WBC middleweight title defence.
Waters and Geale each only had one more fight after those respective losses before hanging up the gloves for good. And with Tszyu – recently renamed ‘The Phoenix’ – desperately attempting to resuscitate his faltering career after three defeats in his last four fights, 29-year-old Velazquez wants to repeat the dose.
“Definitely, I’m going to do my best and (this fight) will have a great ending,” Velazquez told Code Sports about recreating Trinidad’s win over Waters.
“I’m going to win, and I’m going to look forward to that.
“I feel like this fight is going to bring me to the next level, where people are going to start recognising me and respecting me.
“Felix Trinidad and Miguel Cotto, those are the two fighters that motivated me when I was younger. Those are the fighters I looked up to. I’ve seen all their fights.
“Those were the guys who motivated me to lace up the gloves.”
Velazquez jets into Sydney next week with his close-knit team, which includes his father, Carlos, and brother, Deriel.
They have been with him his entire career, and the Massachusetts born and raised Velazquez delivered an ice cold response when asked about Tszyu’s sudden switch of teams two months ago.
“I’m the type of guy that, who I started with, I like to end with. That’s just the way I am,” he told Code Sports of Tszyu’s decision to part ways with long time manager Glen Jennings and trainer Igor Goloubev.
“I can’t speak for nobody else.”
Tszyu has since teamed up with world renowned trainer Pedro Diaz in Miami. Diaz is a Cuban boxing icon, but spent considerable time with Velazquez’s hero, Cotto.
Not that it bothers Velazquez.
“That’s his business,” he said of Tszyu’s partnership with Cotto’s former trainer. “To be honest, I think he’s just a trainer, at the end of the day.
“A trainer can only help you so much and it all depends on who you are.
“A trainer can help, but I feel like it won’t do too much.”
He doesn’t want Tszyu’s change of teams – or the fact that he retired on his stool in his rematch defeat to Sebastian Fundora in July – to be used as an excuse come fight night though.
“The better man won that night, it’s boxing and (Fundora) was the better man,” Velazquez said. “I don’t know what happened to him – only his team knows – and I’ll leave them to that.
“I expect the best version of him that night because when I win, I want the full credit.
“I don’t want people downplaying it. Once I win, I want my respect in the boxing world.”
Velazquez’s father has an incredible 24 brothers and sisters and the fighter says he has “cousins I don’t even know and have never even met before.”
Spread over New England, New York and Puerto Rico, his huge family rides every up and down of his career, and Velazquez says he’s looking forward to winning over new fans in Australia later this month.
“I know (Tszyu) has a big fan base over there, and has a legend like his dad,” he said. “I’m hoping to make new fans after the fight.
“I’ve got the opportunity and this is a good name for my resume.
“I’m a guy with a lot of confidence because I believe in myself and I believe in my hard work.
“He’s just another man.”
Originally published as Anthony Velazquez promises to end Tim Tszyu’s career by recreating historic Aussie pain
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