The instant Tim Tszyu lifted his head on the nightmarish night of March 30, he knew. There was nothing normal about this cut.
In real time, it appeared that Sebastian Fundora’s left elbow barely grazed Tszyu’s head as the aggressive Australian awkwardly fell forward after Fundora landed a right hook. Once Tszyu stood upright, however, blood poured from a grotesque gash on the top of his head, near the center of his hairline.
Tszyu’s deep wound opened just before the bell sounded to end the second round of their fight for Fundora’s WBC and Tszyu’s WBO 154-pound titles. Tszyu had taken complete control during those first six minutes of action, landing so many flush right hands that it looked as if Fundora could suffer a second straight knockout defeat almost a year after Brian Mendoza’s devastating left-right-left combination flattened him.
But as rivers of blood streamed down Tszyu’s forehead, into his eyes, he immediately realized he’d be dealing with the kind of adversity he never encountered in any of his first 24 professional fights.
“It felt different,” Tszyu told Uncrowned in advance of his return fight Saturday night against IBF junior middleweight champ Bakhram Murtazaliev. “I could feel it. I could see it. I could see the blood pissing down. And then, as soon as my cutman came in and did all the stuff and I came out of the corner, into the next round, I just remember it came straight into my eyes and sort of blindsided me. And blood isn’t like water. Blood is thick and it gets dark and red, and it stings.”
That seemingly innocuous collision caused a laceration so uncontrollable, Tszyu actually left his corner bleeding to start the third round. Referee Harvey Dock called for time before the action resumed, urging a Nevada Athletic Commission physician to examine the damage.
The figurative damage done to a then-unbeaten Tszyu’s career wasn’t evident until 10 rounds later. That’s when Jimmy Lennon Jr. announced Fundora (21-1-1, 13 KOs) as the winner by split decision of a fight Tszyu (24-1, 17 KOs) hoped would showcase him in the inaugural Premier Boxing Champions pay-per-view show distributed by Amazon’s Prime Video.
It wasn’t what Tszyu envisioned when he happily accepted 6-foot-6 southpaw Fundora as a replacement for his injured original opponent, Keith Thurman — a 5-foot-8, orthodox boxer.
“[The cut] was sort of covering my eyesight, so I kept trying to use my glove to get rid of it,” Tszyu said. “But looking back at it, it was a tough situation. It sort of distracted me from what I was doing and what I was accomplishing in the first two rounds. The storyline sort of went the other way for me. I wasn’t thinking about the fight. It wasn’t about seeing what’s going on. It was more like, ‘F*ck! I’ve gotta try and survive this thing that’s on the top of my head.’”
Blood isn’t like water. Blood is thick and it gets dark and red, and it stings.Tim Tszyu
Horrified fans applauded Tszyu’s toughness for fighting most of the bloody battle unable to see properly. Many of them also questioned why his trainer, Igor Goloubev, or his cutman, Mark Gambin, didn’t urge Dock to stop their bout before the end of the fourth round, which would’ve rendered Fundora vs. Tszyu a no contest and likely led to a rematch.
Gambin also drew criticism for how he worked on the cut, though many of his contemporaries acknowledged keeping that type of gash from affecting Tszyu’s vision would’ve been problematic for even the craftiest cutmen. Regardless, Tszyu didn’t want their fight to be stopped before the fifth round began anyway.
“For me, it was like, if you’re going to lose, you gotta lose that way,” Tszyu said. “I’m not going to try and survive. I was there to win. And the only way to win for me was trying to smash my opponent. And to just, say, pull out — I guess, forfeit — I guess that’s not my thing. It’s not in my blood, you know? I’d rather die in that ring, and that’s the mentality I’ve got.”
That type of courage and ambition has helped turn the eldest son of former junior welterweight champ Kostya Tszyu into a star in Australia, where 23 of Tim Tszyu’s 25 professional fights have taken place. Tszyu thought a showdown with undefeated pound-for-pound king Terence Crawford would’ve been a realistic fight for him had he defeated Fundora.
Now that lone loss has relegated Tszyu to a smaller stage, Caribe Royale Orlando, a resort near Disney World, where Tszyu will attempt to become a two-time champion against Murtazaliev (22-0, 16 KOs).
Tszyu snatched this opportunity two months ago when Orlando-based southpaw Erickson Lubin turned it down due to a hand injury. Lubin (26-2, 18 KOs) is ranked third among the IBF’s 154-pound contenders, one spot ahead of Tszyu (the top two positions are vacant).
The 12-round bout between Murtazaliev, 31, and Tszyu, 29, is the main event of a three-fight stream scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. ET on Prime Video.
Crawford is preoccupied with vying to move up two more divisions to challenge Canelo Alvarez for super middleweight supremacy. A victory over Murtazaliev, therefore, could lead Tszyu to a rematch with Fundora or a rescheduled clash with knockout artist Vergil Ortiz Jr.
Barely a month removed from the Fundora debacle, Tszyu agreed to oppose Ortiz on the Crawford vs. Israil Madrimov undercard August 3 at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles. Tszyu started training for the Ortiz fight in Thailand, only to learn upon his return to Las Vegas for the remainder of camp that his doctor wouldn’t clear him to fight August 3 because his wound hadn’t healed fast enough.
Ortiz instead defeated rugged Ukrainian contender Sergii Bohachuk by majority decision in a closely contested fight August 10 at Mandalay Bay’s Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas. Ortiz (22-0, 21 KOs) withstood two flash knockdowns to beat Bohachuk (24-2, 23 KOs) on two scorecards (114-112, 114-112, 113-113) and won the WBC interim super welterweight title.
Most oddsmakers have installed Tszyu as a 7-to-1 favorite to beat Murtazaliev, who won the IBF belt Jermell Charlo relinquished by knocking out Jack Culcay (33-5, 14 KOs) in the 11th round of their April 6 bout in Berlin.
The Russia-born Murtazaliev, of Glendale, California, waited four and a half years for his shot at the IBF belt. He accepted step-aside fees and tune-up bouts on PBC undercards four times before Murtazaliev faced Culcay for that unclaimed championship in his most recent action.
If the career-altering events of March 30 taught Tszyu anything, though, it is to fully focus on overcoming Murtazaliev. The Sydney native can’t land fights with Fundora, Lubin, Charlo, or Ortiz if he doesn’t regain the leverage he lost nearly seven months ago.
“I think the biggest lesson I’ve learned is that whatever happens,” Tszyu said, “you just have to concentrate on the present and on the next moment. Take it day by day, week by week. Don’t look too much in the future and don’t look too much in the past. So, yeah, I think all of these things have made me much stronger and aware of everything. Anything can happen, right?”
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