Tim Tszyu v Fernando Vargas

DLH and Mosley beat Vargas at his weight of 154 but neither DLH or Mosley were close to their best at 154. And Quartey was toward end of his career tbh. Regardless Tszyu fights nothing like Wright or Quartey.

 

Time wil tell. Tim will have opportunity to fight Jermell and Vergil and a host of other good fighters in the future (Boots, Thurman, Spence, plus whoever emerges..)

 

Vargas

 

Shane, Oscar and Tito are all hall of fame fighters with titles across multiple weight classes. Are you telling me that Brian Mendoza is on that level? Quartey had nine title defences at 147 and was beating guys like Venlrno Phillips and Vernon Forrest a full 7 years after Vargas beat him and Winky Wright is arguably the best fighter ever at 154. Prime Vargas was no joke.

Tszyu is talented but he hasn't done anything on the level of Vargas yet. Maybe he will but as of now he has not.

 

Vargas didn't lose all his big fights he beat Winky Wright and Ike Quartey who are big names and way better than anyone Tszyu has ever fought Wright is arguably a top 5 Jr Middleweight of all time.

Also how was Quartey past his prime ? He was coming off a SD loss to ODLH.

 

Ike wasn't as affective at 154lbs as he was at 147lbs. It was after the Delahoya loss at some point. As for Winky, he was brought in as an apponent. I thought Winky did enough to win on this HBO fight but they gave it to the touted star.

 

I agree that Ike wasn't as effective at 154 as 147 but he still was a handful and better than anyone that Tszyu has faced. Ike was coming off a close loss to Oscar when Vargas beat him. With that said, Ike went on to beat former champions at 154 like Verno Phillips and he should have got the decision against Vernon Forest.

 

No way in hell tim tszyu wins to vargas. There are levels in this sport and prime vargas is several levels over tim. At least by now.

 

Tszyu is not on that level only because his resume doesn't reflect that. Only time will tell. He seems to have the right mentality and looks to be skilled. But until he gets in there with better opposition we may never know.

 

Quartey lost to Forrest.

 

I agree 100% but when it comes to being compared to Vargas, folks need a reality check. Tszyu is 29 years old, had less than 40 amateur fights and just won his first world title last year. Vargas had over 100 wins as an amateur and was a part of the US amateur program back when that meant something. He is one of the youngest world champions ever and only lost to hall of fame multi belt holding fighters. By the time he was Tszyu age he was shot due to chronic back issues and an absolute beating he took from an all time great in Trinidad. Tim is NOT his dad and while he is talented, he has a way to go before anyone should compare him to a prime Vargas.

 

Its been a long time since i saw the Quartey vs Forrest fight. I don't remember too much about it.

 

Watch the fight. Everyone knows he was robbed. It was one of the worst decisions of the last 20 years.

 

I remember it well because I was a big fan of both of them. Forrest at most won four rounds and that's being generous. The figjt is on YouTube. You can here the disgust of the crown and HBO crew when Forrest got the decision. Forrest got the title shot against Baldomir and won the IBF title at 154. Again, this figjt was a full 6 years after Vargas beat a prime Quartey.

Tzysu wouldn't beat Quartey or Forrest let alone prime Vargas.

 

Mendoza's good though. It's easy to look back on the past with rose coloured glasses and say the past was better than the present. But in reality all we can do is compare what we have today, as opposed to before.

Mendoza is a great boxer and he could beat an Ike or a Winky. Every fight is different obviously and some fighters match up better with others. Hence A beat B, who beat C, Who beat A etc.

Kostya Tszyu was stopped by Vince Phillips. Yet Kostya is and was clearly the superior boxer. Just like Iron Mike is compared to Buster Douglas. Just not on the night.

IMO, Tim smashed Vargas. Vargas didn't have the true boxing i.q when it well truly mattered and he lacked that poise and polish against THE very BEST.