Tszyu to fight for world boxing title on home turf
Darren Walton |
With much love, Tony Harrison has doubled down on his claim that Tim Tszyu will be out of his depth when the two square off next month for the interim WBO super welterweight title in Sydney.
Promoters are expecting to sell out the near-20,000-seat Qudos Bank Arena after announcing on Wednesday that Tszyu’s home city will stage the 28-year-old’s maiden world-title fight on March 12.
Tszyu was to have fought Jermell Charlo for all four divisional belts in Las Vegas last month before the American sustained two fractures in his left hand the week before Christmas.
Now he’s risking that unification super bout by taking on Harrison, the only man to ever conquer Charlo.
Harrison (29-3-1, 21KO) stripped the WBC belt from his US rival in 2018, before losing it in a rematch, and says Tszyu (21-0, 15KO) is crazy to enter the ring with him at such a delicate point in his career.
“We need to get management on the phone,” Harrison said from Detroit.
“We need to talk to management because, like, for him to be at the doorstep for all the marbles and to accept a fight with the only man that’s beat the man that you were looking to beat, we need to talk to management about this one.
“We need to go to HR. Something ain’t right about this one.”
After deriding Tszyu last week as little more than a “park fighter”, Harrison maintains the undefeated Sydneysider doesn’t have the skills to trouble him.
“He’s a talker, that’s what they do,” Tszyu said.
“There’s more to boxing than just skills.
“I’m an all-rounder. Talk is cheaper. Actions speak louder than words so my main focus is to focus when the fight gets on.”
The former world champion did concede Tszyu was “right at the top of the food chain for toughness” in the duo’s stacked division and said he was forever indebted for the chance to set himself up for another crack at Charlo later this year.
“It’s everything for me, man. He’s chasing the same thing I’m chasing. The same man he’s looking is the same man I’ve been looking for,” Harrison said.
“So I swear I’m really hugging Tim right now because without Tim there was no other possible way that I was ever going to possibly get the opportunity to get back to the fight I want.
“He definitely could have taken the easier fight. He was already lined up with the easier fight. I don’t know why they make it seem like he didn’t already have the easier fight in front of him (against Charlo).
“For him to say yes to a guy like me, he woke me up out of the dead. This is me hugging you Tim.
“You brought me back to life.”
But Tsyzu is having none of Harrison’s lovey-dovey, rope-a-dope antics, saying all he cares about is claiming the 33-year-old’s prized scalp en route to dominating the super welterweight ranks.
“No hugs and kisses from me,” he said.
“This is the name that I need. Twenty-one fights into my resume, this is the one that I need to wake all these boys up.
“I need this name. I came in to the sport not to just muck around but to really take over.”
AAP
