by Keith Idec
TIM Tszyu was “devastated” when a doctor informed him that he shouldn’t go through with his fight against Vergil Ortiz Jr.
Tszyu agreed to oppose Ortiz barely a month after he suffered one of the most grotesque cuts in recent boxing history, during the third round of his split-decision defeat to Sebastian Fundora on March 30 in Las Vegas.
The ambitious Australian hadn’t given the stitched skin atop his head enough time to heal, however, which led to the former WBO junior middleweight champion’s withdrawal from a fight with Ortiz that was scheduled to be part of the Terence Crawford-Israil Madrimov undercard August 3 at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles.
Ortiz instead agreed to fight Ukrainian contender Serhii Bohachuk, whom Ortiz outpointed by majority decision August 10 in Las Vegas. Ortiz (22-0, 21 KOs), who got up from two flash knockdowns to beat Bohachuk (24-2, 23 KOs), won the WBC interim super welterweight title that night and has since been elevated to full champion.
Tszyu, meanwhile, will battle Bakhram Murtazaliev for the unbeaten Russian’s IBF junior middleweight title Saturday night in Orlando, Florida. If Tszyu (24-1, 17 KOs), a 7-1 favorite according to most sportsbooks, defeats Murtazaliev (22-0, 16 KOs), he hopes to reschedule the Ortiz bout in what would then be a fight for two 154-pound championships.
“I’m always down for that,” Tszyu told Boxing News. “I think he did well [against Bohachuk]. I think he did very well. He fought a hard fight. It was good to see him really into the 154-pound division because before he wasn’t fighting the [top] 154-pounders. But this was a real test for him, and I think he passed with flying colors.”
The knockdowns Ortiz withstood in the first and eighth rounds when he boxed Bohachuk made the scores closer on the cards of judges Max De Luca (113-113), David Sutherland (114-112) and Steve Weisfeld (114-112). The Grand Prairie, Texas native previously knocked out every opponent he had faced as a pro, but Bohachuk (24-2, 23 KOs) is a dangerous puncher as well.
“I don’t think he got hurt any of those times,” Tszyu said. “He’s a warrior. The knockdowns were what made the fight a bit closer.”
Bohachuk’s promoter, Tom Loeffler, pushed for an immediate rematch with Ortiz. Once that didn’t materialize, Bohachuk agreed to battle Uzbekistan’s Madrimov (10-1-1, 7 KOs) in another intriguing junior middleweight match on the Oleksandr Usyk-Tyson Fury undercard December 21 at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Tszyu’s public disagreement with influential Turki Alalshikh, chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, could complicate rescheduling a fight versus Ortiz because Alalshikh helped fund the Ortiz-Bohachuk card at Mandalay Bay’s Michelob ULTRA Arena and works with Ortiz’s promoter, Oscar De La Hoya.
Tszyu, a son of former junior welterweight champ Kostya Tszyu, must first defeat Murtazaliev in their Prime Video main event at Caribe Royale Orlando (1 a.m. GMT; 8 p.m. ET). Though his full focus has shifted to Murtazaliev, Tszyu is still bothered because he had to pull out of his fight with Ortiz.
“I came back [to Australia] from America two weeks after my fight with Fundora, got my stitches out,” Tszyu recalled. “And then I got the call about Vergil Ortiz. I didn’t even think about it. ‘Yes. Of course. What an opportunity. I can’t wait.’ You know? The next day I booked a trip to Thailand to start my pre-training camp. I trained in Thailand for two weeks. I needed to get clearance from the doctor about the cut, as I just started training. And yeah, the doctor said basically, ‘Not yet. It’s not cleared yet.’ ”
