Tim Tszyu sacks team to put full faith in Jeff Fenech
Tim Tszyu has appointed Australian great Jeff Fenech as his new trainer after dramatically sacking his team for the second time in three fights, and he will meet with him on Friday to discuss Fenech also becoming his manager.
The junior middleweight had defeated Anthony Velazquez and Denis Nurja with the Cuban Pedro Diaz as his trainer, with Mike Altamura and Darcy Ellis as his co-managers, and with Fenech as his advisor.
He is also nearing a date with Errol Spence in July, but two fights on from sacking his uncle and long-term trainer Igor Goloubev and his previous manager Glenn Jennings – having just lost for the second time to Sebastian Fundora – he has decided to overhaul his team again.
Fenech, who alongside the 31-year-old Tim’s celebrated father Kostya is widely considered Australia’s finest ever fighter, had been critical of the direction he was being taken in. They will work together for Spence in Sydney, Australia and potentially in Thailand; it was in Miami that Tszyu had been training under Diaz.
“I’ve watched Tim train for years and years and years,” Fenech told Boxing Scene. “I’m sure he will be fine. We just want to work hard. My first job is getting him mentally prepared; the physical part’s gonna be easy ‘cause Tim’s one of the hardest trainers that I’ve ever seen.
“It’s a combination of those two things. If we get him mentally right first, everything will fall into place.
“It was a big surprise. But I had – not criticism, because everyone does their own stuff – when I watched Pedro Diaz do the pads, you don’t have to move to punch somebody, and in the fight game you have to move your feet. Anybody can say it looked great making all these noises punching. Unless you’re moving your feet, in a real fight you’re not hitting anybody. I just said what’s true.
“In that first fight [the victory in December over Velazquez] Tim threw over 500 punches; landed 100. That’s like giving a soccer ball to Ronaldo and saying ‘Here’, and he misses 400 shots – and Tim’s closer [to the target] than Ronaldo is.
“I didn’t even ask him [why he decided to make a change]. I didn’t say ‘Why now?’. I just said ‘I would love to help you’. I only wanna help him ‘cause I know I can help him. If I thought that he was unfixable I would let him know that I think that he should do something else. But I know that he’s still got a whole lot of potential. He’s done all of this without anybody helping him or telling him what to do.
“Every time he sits in the corner, nobody tells him what he’s done right or what he’s done wrong or what he has to do. Every fight he’s ever had he’s only ever had Plan A, and because it worked for so long he’s never had to change it. But now he’s at that level – he’s fighting guys like Errol Spence, who’ll be next, and he’s got to have levels; he’s got to have an A, B and C plan, and I plan to give him that.
“Tim’s made a decision; he’s asked me to help him. I’m very, very excited and I’m looking forward to it.”
Fenech chose against attending the fight with Velazquez, and walked out of the victory over Nurja, earlier in April, before the final bell. Tszyu suffered a significant cut under his left eye that it was feared might delay the proposed date with Spence – perhaps the biggest of his career – but Fenech believes that he can be ready for it in July.
“I’m talking to Tim about [being his manager] tomorrow – we’ve got a meeting – and I think I’ll be doing that job as well,” Fenech explained.
“I’m very, very confident in his ability, his fitness, and everything else, so I’m more than happy with it. They’re talking about [the fight with Spence] being in July in Australia somewhere, so we’re just waiting, but I’m really excited for Tim.
“The first and foremost thing I think anybody should do with him is watch the fights he was dropped in [the defeats by Fundora and Bakhram Murtazaliev]; knocked out in; let him know why. Sit him down and explain what happened. I’ve watched those fights 100 times so I know what to say to him. The first thing we work on is fixing those areas where he’s very open as he was throwing a punch, and open for the left hook and a few other punches.
“It’s my job to put him in position and to make sure when we do the training, he gets the confidence where he’s doing it properly. He was just punching; coming straight back out in the middle of the ring. He’s giving people that opportunity [to punch him] and I want to make sure I fix that for him, and go from there.
“I’m really excited. I’m training a couple of boys – [Australian junior welterweight] Hass Hamdan, who’s a good prospect – and this is gonna make him better, because he’ll be one of Tim’s sparring partners. I’m really excited that I’ve got an opportunity to work with somebody that needs help, and I’m more excited about the challenge to make Tim a better fighter.
“We will train here in Australia, but I [also] have a training camp in Thailand where we can train.”
