Tim Tszyu is a C+B- level fighter

Tszyu has improved a lot. He looked like a glorified club fighter when I first saw him fight but now he's one of the best fighters in the division and he has racked up good/respectable wins against the likes of Harrison, Mendoza, Horn, Gausha, Hogan, Ocampo, Inoue and Steve Spark.

Is he as good or near as accomplished as his old man yet? No that's just silly talk.

Jermello desperately needs to rebuild his reputation after the timid display against Clenelo, especially after he talked such a big game, and right now I only see two routes available for him to achieve that: Head back down to 154 and face either Tszyu or Crawford.

The Crawford fight isn't near as appealing as it previously was considering he's coming off a one-sided loss and the nature of that loss was very damaging to Jermello's reputation. You can't sell yourself as a lion, roar your loudest, and then turn up on the night and act like a scaredy-cat.

Compare his nonperformance against Clenelo to the performances of Brit lions like Khan and Brook against Clenelo and GGG respectively. That's how you do it.


But the Tszyu fight is still juicy and there is history and beef there so if Jermello can defeat the hungry young lion Tszyu it will go someway to restoring his credibility and reputation. Even more so if he were to do so in Tszyu's backyard.

I know Tszyu has made it clear after beating Mendoza he will no longer be fighting back home in Australia but it'll do very good numbers over there given the size of his fanbase and Jermello has never fought outside North America and Jermello beating Tszyu over there on enemy territory would make a bigger statement and help restore his reputation more than it would doing so at home. I think the fight is simply bigger over there too.

 

I'm always gonna take shots and beat my chest. It's what I do. What I was born to do. All good-natured forum banter, though.

I haven't watched a lot of him but I have seen a bunch of his fights and I do rate him. Very tough fight up next for him though. Dogboe is legit world class and if Ball can stop him that will be a big statement. Even if he can just beat him it will be impressive.

 

I would have loved to have seen that one back when they briefly were both at 140, and I think old man Tszyu was a tremendous talent who tends to usually get underrated in hindsight.

The fight would have had a good story around it too, with the whole Uncle Roger angle. But Tszyu was most effective at mid range, and despite what I may have believed way back when, I think Floyd would have beaten him decisively.

 

Yes it would've been.

I can't see that. He might have beaten him but not decisively. Unlike Floyd who struggled against slickness, Tszyu feasted on slickness and his vicious two-fisted power, laser accuracy, and speed (his speed is very underrated) would've caused Floyd big problems.

I remember Floyd saying he considered Kostya P4P#1 once, so in complete contrast to his doe-eyed fanboys, Floyd rated Kostya highly.