Moments ago in Australia, unbeaten Tim Tszyu dished out a fearful hammering in stopping Jeff Horn in their hyped grudge-match. Tszyu, son of course of the great Kostya Tszyu, had things all his own way all night long, winning every round on this card before Horn was mercifully pulled out after the eighth round. Tszyu, the younger man by seven years at age 25, is now 16-0(12). Former WBO welterweight champ Horn falls to 20-3-1(13) and he might have to strongly consider his retirement from the sport.
The 154-pound fight was seen by plenty of good judges as a close fight going in, maybe even a 50/50 fight. Instead, it was a massacre. Tszyu, so much faster, sharper and stronger, landed every punch in the book. Working both Horn’s head and body, Tszyu was in total charge. Horn was decked by a left hook in round three, and he was down again, from a body shot, in round six.
By the time of the second knockdown, there were calls for the fight to be stopped. Horn, who appeared exhausted, had nothing on his own punches and only his raw courage kept him in there. But barring a miracle turnaround there was only going to be one winner. Horn’s corner may well be bombarded with heavy criticism for not pulling their man out sooner than they did.
Nothing at all should be taken away from Tszyu’s superb performance but maybe the hard fights had caught up with Horn. Whatever the case, Tszyu has one bright future in front of him. The emerging star showed great poise, skills and patience in today’s fight. It could be argued that Tszyu looked better even than Terence Crawford looked when he beat Horn a while back.
“I want everyone to know my name is Tim, not the son,” a victorious Tszyu said after his great win. “This is a young man’s sport and I was better this time. It was an honour to share the ring with Jeff.”
Tszyu absolutely looks like a definite future world champion.
