Kostya Tszyu

[amwsnw]

Firstly i will say he's one of my all time favorites and after Fenech and Harding went from the scene he put a real buzz back into Australian boxing. I think he is still one of the all time great junior welters despite his loss to Phillips and then Hatton. There was much talk regarding he and Oscar fighting which never eventuated.
Im keen to hear where you guys put Kostya and also how you think a bout against Oscar (jnr welter) wouldve gone. Cheers.

[IKSRTFO]

From a style standpoint, I think Oscar at 140 is too big for him and starches him. Oscar had major trouble with boxers who moved a lot more than Kostya did. But I do think Tszyu vs Mayweather at 140 would've been interesting.

[amwsnw]

From a style standpoint, I think Oscar at 140 is too big for him and starches him. Oscar had major trouble with boxers who moved a lot more than Kostya did. But I do think Tszyu vs Mayweather at 140 would've been interesting.

Good call. As we know, styles make fights. I look at Zab and Mitchell, both good movers who i thought KT would have great problem with and he didnt.

[IKSRTFO]

From a style standpoint, I think Oscar at 140 is too big for him and starches him. Oscar had major trouble with boxers who moved a lot more than Kostya did. But I do think Tszyu vs Mayweather at 140 would've been interesting.

Good call. As we know, styles make fights. I look at Zab and Mitchell, both good movers who i thought KT would have great problem with and he didnt.

That's true. Oscar could box as well and wasn't a bad mover. Oscar was underrately tough as nails and had too iron of a chin compared to both Mitchell and Judah and very seldomly fell apart in fights where he got hurt. Tyzu was too small for guys like Oscar and Tito, who were framewize perfect for 154. I do think guys like Corrales, Castillo, and Casamayor woudl've been beaten by Tyszu.

[aliboy123]

2nd tier light welter for me - a really hurtful right hand elevates him to a level the rest of his boxing perhaps doesn't deserve (i'm speaking of the pantheon of true greatness here)

however - he was always great to watch and his destructions of Judah, Mitchell were very good

[BoxBuzz]

Well he fought everyone that was put in front of him, ran from no one, and in his last fight he was up against his opponent and the ref.

He had the class of a Joe Louis.

I think he's top tier, but see the sense in having him just off top tier as well. I think his sportsmanship carries him into firs class territory.

[IKSRTFO]

He's definetly top noch and dangerous and there's a reason both Mosley and DLH didn't fight him but I see him in comparison to them as I see Pryor in comparison to the top 4. Dangerous and good in his own right, but likely not to beat the rest.

[p4p1]

For me Tszyu is underrated by a lot of people. He had a great career, with the Hatton fight being somewhat farcical due to the referee. Extremely dangerous fighter, very smart and calculated with underrated boxing. I actually think that he had the style to beat mayweather when he was at 140 though I'm not so sure the 36 year old version that Mayweather would've fought had enough left in the tank.

[Bard of Boxrec]

Lost to a guy who had been beaten thrice, only once to a top fighter. Admittedly Phillips blew hot and cold and when he was on he was good.

Best win over Zab Judah.

Vast experience of feasting on Oscar's leftovers; Ruelas, a fossilised JCC, Gonzalez, Leija.

A sprinkling of solid wins but hardly great, Hurtado, Mitchell, Gonzalez, Urkal.

I think people put too much stock in him unifying and being undisputed but he didn't have a long or impressive reign, and he only ended up fighting 33 times.

Great? No. He had skill and a lot of power and had the potential to achieve more, but would have been outboxed by the likes of Oscar and Shane IMO.

[jbizzle20]

One of the all time great SLWs and P4Ps. Beat the best of his generation at SLW and gave Hatton all he could handle, even as an aging fighter. Didn't back down from anyone and a tremendously skilled and patient fighter with serious thunder in his fists for a SLW.

[Jpreisser]

Lost to a guy who had been beaten thrice, only once to a top fighter. Admittedly Phillips blew hot and cold and when he was on he was good.

Best win over Zab Judah.

Vast experience of feasting on Oscar's leftovers; Ruelas, a fossilised JCC, Gonzalez, Leija.

A sprinkling of solid wins but hardly great, Hurtado, Mitchell, Gonzalez, Urkal.

I think people put too much stock in him unifying and being undisputed but he didn't have a long or impressive reign, and he only ended up fighting 33 times.

Great? No. He had skill and a lot of power and had the potential to achieve more, but would have been outboxed by the likes of Oscar and Shane IMO.

I get some of the other points, but the quantity doesn't seem like much of a knock. After all, half of those were considered title fights. He moved pretty quickly, too, taking on a few aged former titlists early on. Certainly the resume leaves something to be desired.

For me, he's one of the best ever at 140, though I don't care too much about the class itself. Stylistically he had a lot going for him--speed, power, technical ability, precision, smarts, etc. I always found him more impressive than say Antonio Cervantes.

[ClivePatrickLyons]

Lost to a guy who had been beaten thrice, only once to a top fighter. Admittedly Phillips blew hot and cold and when he was on he was good.

Best win over Zab Judah.

Vast experience of feasting on Oscar's leftovers; Ruelas, a fossilised JCC, Gonzalez, Leija.

A sprinkling of solid wins but hardly great, Hurtado, Mitchell, Gonzalez, Urkal.

I think people put too much stock in him unifying and being undisputed but he didn't have a long or impressive reign, and he only ended up fighting 33 times.

Great? No. He had skill and a lot of power and had the potential to achieve more, but would have been outboxed by the likes of Oscar and Shane IMO.

Phillips was one of the most talented drug addicted fighters in the 90's what he achieved in becoming a World Champion was and is the blue print to all affected by addiction. there is HOPE

[gilgamesh]

Cotto was still young and not quite prime, but it would've been interesting to see him vs Tszyu around 2004 or 2005. I always liked Tszyu.

[Jpreisser]

Cotto was still young and not quite prime, but it would've been interesting to see him vs Tszyu around 2004 or 2005. I always liked Tszyu.

I would have liked to have seen it, but I don't think Cotto's style was conducive to beating Tszyu's. Cotto gave space and wasn't particularly fleet-footed. He also looked slower and less powerful than Kostya, and sometimes vulnerable.

[Kalan]

Cotto was still young and not quite prime, but it would've been interesting to see him vs Tszyu around 2004 or 2005. I always liked Tszyu.

I would have liked to have seen it, but I don't think Cotto's style was conducive to beating Tszyu's. Cotto gave space and wasn't particularly fleet-footed. He also looked slower and less powerful than Kostya, and sometimes vulnerable.

Cotto was a 4-Division World Champion and I didn't see Tszyu going anywhere... Cotto was a very good boxer... Tszyu? Not a real good boxer.. I liked Tszyu.. He was a real good puncher, especially with the right.. But he could never handle anybody who could box and counterpunch well, such as Cotto.

[IKSRTFO]

Lost to a guy who had been beaten thrice, only once to a top fighter. Admittedly Phillips blew hot and cold and when he was on he was good.

It is worth mentioning those 3 defeats were to full blown Welters, not 140 pounders.

And Oscar was probably naturally bigger than all of them.

[Kalan]

Vince Phillips was a good right hand counter puncher. Tszyu sometimes showed you the same short jab in almost the same rhythm early on in his pro career... That was an important fight for Tszyu, like the 1st Max Schmeling fight was an important fight for Joe Louis... Your trainers and coaches will tell you thousands of times that your jab is readable and easily countered.. If nobody is hitting you very sharply the message has little impact and you think they're full of it.

Then when somebody knocks the boxer out, he knows they're going to tell him.. "I TOLD you so. You need to listen" ... So he preempts them by saying "You told me my jab is easy to counter and I should have listened better. This is something we need to work on. I'll be in the gym Monday" That was Tszyu, and 1 reason the straight right became his favorite punch.

[Redback Rasta]

Kostya's eldest son makes his pro debut next month.

[Redback Rasta]

Kostya's son won his pro debut and is scheduled to fight again on February 3rd.