Taronga Tszyu? Tim needs a boxing nickname fast

Can we really take Tim Tszyu seriously until he has a proper boxing nickname?

Tim Tszyu takes the soul, and the senses, of Irish fighter Dennis Hogan at Newcastle Entertainment Centre. Picture: Getty Images

Can we really take Tim Tszyu seriously until he has a proper boxing nickname?

His father Kostya was known as “The Thunder from Down Under” (despite being from Siberia), Jeff Fenech was the “Marrickville Mauler”, Anthony Mundine was “The Man” and Jeff Harding “The Hitman”.

So far Tim Tszyu has just gone with Tim but he was taken by surprise when Fox Sports commentator Ben Damon suggested “The Soul Taker” should be his nickname after his fifth-round knockout of Irishman Dennis “Hurricane” Hogan in Newcastle on Wednesday night.

It was in reference to Tszyu’s pre-fight comments, before most of his fights, about taking an opponent’s soul by slowly breaking them down. Tszyu gets more satisfaction from longer rather than shorter fights because he can see his foe’s spirit breaking.

Initially, he liked it, saying in the ring he was all for it. Afterwards, he was still keen, saying, “Ben Damon said it correctly — the Soul Taker. It’s pretty cruel. I’m not like that as a person but in the ring, that’s what I’m all about.”

The following day, he was more cool on it, saying it was by no means official. “I don’t know if I want or need a nickname,” he said. “I kind of like just being Tim Tszyu.”

City of Yewcastle

They do things a little differently in Newcastle, which this week subbed in as the centre of the sporting universe.

The front page of the Newcastle Herald before the World Surf League’s Easter event — Yewcastle! — received the approval of the Lord Mayor, but not everyone around her understood it. The landlubbers needed an explanation.

“I would like to officially announce while WSL is on, it’s not Newcastle, it’s Yewcastle,” Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said at the event launch. “The funniest thing about that is, I had to explain it to a couple of senior managers at council who said, ‘I don’t understand’.

“I told them, ‘Clearly, you don’t bleed red and blue and clearly, you’ve never been barrelled. Or you don’t have an 18-year-old surfer in the family, as I do, who actually just communicates by going round saying, Yew! Yew! Yew!’ There’s no actual talking. There’s just yewing and shakas. So, welcome to Yewcastle.”

Rake cruels favourite

The jockey stiffed me. That trainer wouldn’t know Royal Randwick from the Royal Hotel. There’s a million excuses punters find for why their hard-earned cash was squandered but “a rake got in the way” isn’t one we’ve seen before.

That’s what happened this week at the Townsville greyhound meeting on Tuesday night when a rake was left in front of box one for the start of race eight.

Local trainer Rhonda Essery was left fuming when her runner Sensational had to dodge the tool from the jump.

“I’m only little and you don’t think to look over the boxes to see if there’s a rake there — I first noticed it just before the boxes opened,” Essery told punters.com.au.

“I can only imagine the fright the dogs would have got — especially Sensational who it was in front of.

“Straight after the race I told the stewards not to give all clear but they did and it was all over red rover.

“They argued the rake never hit Sensational but it did. And even if it didn’t, seeing a rake in front of you when the boxes open surely denies you a fair chance.”

Sensational started as the $2.90 second favourite from box one but finished a distance last.

It was a strange week for the dishlickers in Queensland. The Capalaba meeting last Sunday was called off prematurely when a red belly black snake slithered under the boxes.

Slice of bad luck

While a rake proved Sensational’s undoing, over in Bahrain F1 driver Fernando Alonso had to withdraw from his first grand prix since 2018 when an abandoned piece of sandwich wrapping ended his comeback.

“After the second stop, a sandwich wrap paper got stuck inside the rear brake duct of Fernando’s car, which led to high temperatures and caused some damage to the brake system,” said team boss Marcin Budkowski.

Johnson plays it safe

Speaking of sandwiches, reigning Masters champion Dustin Johnson says the famous offerings at Augusta National are his favourite thing about Masters week but there won’t be any on the menu at the Masters dinner.

Johnson, who gets to pick the menu for the pre-tournament Champions Dinner next week, has instead gone for pigs in a blanket, lobster and corn fritters as his appetiser with filet mignon and marinated sea bass for mains.

Some solid offerings without the Aussie flair of Adam Scott’s Moreton Bay bugs but significantly better than when Scotsman Sandy Lyle served haggis in 1989.

BC’s tip of the week

Finally, back in winning form after a long run of outs, Brendan Cormick looks to go back-to-back with his Saturday tip at Caulfield. He is confident after a recent trial performance that Marine One (Race 3, No 1) can upset the warm favourite from Sydney, Najmaty.


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