Terence Crawford vs Kostya Tszyu

Bud vs The Real King Kong Ortiz!

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Tszyu has no advantage over Crawford. Crawford has the height and the reach advantage. Tsyzu also fought in a very Euro-centric style that would actually be a detriment for him against Crawford. Crawford is not chinny and isn't erratic like Judah, so even if caught, he'd be smart enough to not put himself in a bad spot. Tszyu's only plus is his "famed" timing that fans yammer on about like he can time God and score a KO.

The plus for Crawford is... well, everything else.

Crawford UD or even late KO. Honestly, I see it as easy work from Crawford.

 

Funny. Going into the KT fight Zab was unbeaten. Being talked about as pound for pound one of the best.
KT destroyed him INSIDE 2 rounds with 1 punch.
Zabs career never turned out to be what people thought after that but he could fight and he was quicker then Bud. Remember he gave !Mayweather problems early on.
Bud is more of a complete boxer then Zab but KT had that power.
Don't know who I would pick. It would be a great match regardless of the outcome.

 

No-one has addressed the elephant in the room - Tszyu's losses.

Both came when he was underdone in terms of fights leading into the fateful days (or nights as the case may have been).

As an obvious statement, both losses were extremely hard fought wars of attrition. Saying "Tszyu quit" in the Hatton fight ignores the fact his corner pulled him out after receiving a non-response to the question of was he okay to continue. He was obviously gone and should not have continued. It's debatable whether he even understood what he was being asked - but I digress.

There were a number of issues that contributed to the Vince Phillips loss, the two most important being:

1. Phillips, a decent fighter with good punching power, fought a great fight, and
2. Tszyu's lack of competitive action leading into the fight meant he was underdone going in and ultimately not capable of withstanding such an unexpectedly strong challenge.

The seeds for the Vince Phillips loss were sewn when Tszyu's management chose Leonardo Mas as an opponent in his previous fight instead of Charles Murray (a decent American who would have given Tszyu rounds). Mas was hopeless, couldn't stay upright and was stopped easily in the first. The ref ruled technical draw for a late punch which at the time, stained Tszyu's perfect record. Tszyu spent much of the lead-up to the Phillips fight upset about that as well as losing a court case to his former promoter. While they were distractions out of the ring I think the fact Tszyu didn't get any meaningful work against Mas (following on from a couple of one-sided fights in Australia the previous year) left him vulnerable in his next fight. Tszyu's management should have chosen Charles Murray who would not have taken a dive in the first round. They were offered both potential opponents & chose Mas presumably believing he was an easier fight for the same money. They were right about that but I reckon it cost them next fight.

There were lots of other reasons given for the Vince Phillips loss but I think it was as simple as Phillips being fight hardened coming in (he lost a tough 10-rounder not long before) & Kostya Tszyu being underdone (as a consequence of opponent choices made by his own management).

The moral of the story is it's a fine line in boxing & timing is everything.

Tszyu had long stretches of inactivity leading into the Hatton fight & was underdone for that one as well. Probably shouldn't have been fighting at that weight at that time either. He looked like a corpse at the weigh-in. In saying that, he looked terrific against Sharmba Mitchell in his previous fight (despite also looking like a corpse at the weigh-in) but that one didn't last very long either.

When you find yourself in a tough war of attrition, you need some tough hard rounds behind you in order to prevail at the back end of the fight.

Tszyu didn't have them going into either the Vince Phillips or Ricky Hatton fights.

 

Tszyu knock out Crawford... almost as overrated as Wilder.

 

So was did Gamboa.

 

Funny, Mikey Garcia found that "weak division" as did Linares and others AFTER Crawford left. Where were they when he was there? Perhaps he was the reason the "division was weak."

 

Zoo also has an unavenged knockout loss to Vince Phillips and of those 15 “champions” he fought (two of whom won their belt by stopping Zoo), Zab and Hatton were the only two who were really shining when the fights took place. So Zoo quits half of the time when fighting a prime, above average champion according to that stat.

Crawford’s level of performance since Postol is higher than Zoo ever achieved.

 

Tszyu opens a can of whoop-ass on Bud "American Dud" Crawford's head.

 

What's does today's weak division have to do with Phillips whooping up on KT? The real question would be, how would Crawford have faired against the likes of Phillips and Hatton.