Short term - he elected to go away & rebuild. Medium term - Phillips lost to Terron Millett who lost to Zab. Tszyu was trying to unify the belts & Cool Vince didn't have one. Longer term - Once Tszyu unified, he got a big phat contract from Showtime who wouldn't pay him to defend against a perceived-to-be over the hill Cool Vince. Just like they wouldn't pay him to defend against unknown no.1 contender Gianluca Branco. It was a brutal loss & if he'd rematched Cool Vince straight away he would have lost again. He went away, rebuilt over the course of several fights & went on to unify the division. Correct decision made, imo. Some incorrect decisions were made before the Vince Phillips fight but that's another story.
Tszyu was one of those fighter's that never tried to avenge his defeats because he knew there styles were all wrong for him.
Correct decision from a business standpoint....for legacy purposes this loss will always overshadow his career...at least to me. Far more than his loss to the much younger Hatton at end of his career. Phillips also made himself a decent little title reign, even TKOd Mickey Ward. May be it was a SHOWTIME decision, but ill never hold Tzyu in as such high regard as everyone else seems to. Of course, I do agree, he probably would have lost the rematch and that would have put his second reign as champion in great jeopardy
He should’ve fought an immediate rematch. That’s why he’s never mentioned with the atgs. He is mentioned as one of the best at 140 but the lack of that particular rematch is a penalty in boxing.
He got beat by Philips, for whatever reason, yes he didn't rematch him. His only other loss was in his last fight, where he suffered bleeding on the brain and promptly retired. Hardly a guy avoiding people!
Cool Vince at his best was a very good fighter. No surprise that he kayoed Micky Ward. I think from a legacy perspective Tszyu made the right decision b/c he never would have gone on & unified the titles had he rematched Cool Vince straight away. There's a case for saying that he should have worked a Cool Vince rematch in there somewhere even if it was only as a farewell fight but it's doubtful how much credit he would have been given for that. I think Tszyu's claim to greatness is a consistently high level of performance over a very long period of time. With most fighters, you can usually pinpoint a time when they were better than they ever were before or would be again. You can't really do that with Tszyu which is testament to his longevity. Some of my favourite Tszyu fights are his very early ones. Hector Lopez, for example. The Vince Phillips fight was his only loss in 16 years (1989 to 2005) amateur or pro. During that time he won the world amateur championship at 139 lbs & unified the professional championship at 140. For a fighter to lose only once in that time span while facing the level of opposition that he did was pretty good going. No fighter from the opposite side of the world is ever going to win them all fighting in the United States.
Prime Tszyu v Hatton imo would have looked a lot different to that fight,especially with a different ref not allowing Hatton to get away with some of the stuff he was able to. There was a few factors effecting Tszyus performance against Phillips not least the fact he was in the middle of a dispute with him promoter that cost him millions and over a year of his fighting career,theres no way that Phillips would beat Tszyu everytime although he certainly had a style that gave Tszyu difficulties
LOL exposed as a fanboy again. It is okay for Horn to foul and fight like a dirty rat against Pacquiao "it's a boxing match these things happen" LOL but when Hatton roughs up and bullies one of Australia's favourite sons its an outrage he would not have gotten away with that if the fight wasn't in his home town. Seriously you can't make this stuff up ROFLMAO
Wondering why he hasn't responded yet? Maybe it's just being tired of hearing lies and slander, it couldn't be that he dug himself a huge hole here and was a cornered rat with no way out but running away with tail between legs.
Yeah that fight v Philips was a shock, I watched it live in a pub. I also think Tszyu was used to rolling through opponents very easily up until that point. Hector Lopez was the only dude I can remember pushing Kostya before Vince. Kostya wasn't prepared for Philips chin. I agree with you, if they fought another 10 times, I see Tszyu winning every time but I don't know, it's only natural to be hesitant about fighting someone again who has stopped you previously. I agree also about his fight with Hatton, the ref's infamous performance as well as the absurdly late start of the fight. I think Hatton trained his body clock much better than Kostya for that fight.