Agreed, but at least we no longer have the bull**** articles from Nick Walshaw over on Foxsports describing Tim as Australia's boxing poster boy in every article he writes or that silly John Wick hit-list. Hopefully, the media start paying more attention to the likes of Jai, Liam and Skye and the other Australian boxers
I said it a few pages back. Opetaia is ahead of the rest of Aussie boxing by the length of the Bruce Highway. There's levels to it and the hype surrounding some is purely to convert it into PPV buys. That's fine, but when you look objectively at things, there's levels to this game. Even on here, not this thread necessarily, Opetaia copped some stick for the Briedis rematch performance. A fight he won comfortably on the cards, despite some rocky moments late. Briedis, though past his best was likely the second best Cruiser on the planet. At worst, third. Anyway, there's some rebuilding to be done with Tim. He needs to move his head a lot more than he currently does.
I like watching Tim, he's usually in entertaining fights. I just never bought into some of the ridiculous hype from Fox Sports etc.
And during the rematch, Briedis only started winning some rounds late in the fight following an accidental headclash with Jai, which I read resulted in a broken nose. Prior to that, it was all Jai
Tim needs to get a new team that teaches him some actual movement and boxing skills. He became a flat footed slow plodder using his head to block punches.
It showed he hadn't overcome the L he had taken from Fundora in his previous fight. It's why you have tune-up fights after a loss. To assess form & re-establish momentum. Too late now. Hopefully they don't make the same mistake again & rush him back into a big fight. Take it slow & build him up at Middleweight. Have they still got Michael Zerafa's number?
Tim certainly couldn't be accused of fighting a smart fight. Why he - or somebody in his team - chose to go toe-to-toe from the outset with the bigger, stronger Murtazaliev, I'll never know. The first rule of fighting is play to your strengths and the other guy's weaknesses and he did the opposite. Tim may not have beaten Murtazaliev if he'd fought a smarter fight but he would have given himself a better chance.
The get a new trainer every time you lose a fight routine just doesn't work. No better proof of that than Joshua.
A lot of criticism is being thrown about as to why Murtazaliev was chosen as an opponent straight after the bleed-out loss to Fundora. Also, why head straight back to the US? Particularly when nobody there wanted to pay to watch it. In hindsight, excellent questions.
Yep could've had a tune up against a top 15 opponent in front of a packed house anywhere in Australia.
We keep hearing the plan is for Nikita to fight Zerafa next. Should that happen and Zerafa wins, Tim-Zerafa would probably be the way to go. I hope Nikita beats Zerafa but I have a sneaking suspicion that's not how it will play out.