BoxRec

I have nothing but respect for Tszyu and think it was more to do with his corner calling it off than him quitting, but the problem I have is what he said befoire the fight. "I'd rather die in the ring than quit", or words to that effect. To have read that and then seen him effectively quit, I did lose a certain degree of respect.

The original question is being over-looked.

This is not a post to slag off anybody, especially not Kostya.
But only to the original question of, has Kostya tarnished his reputation?

Acelino Freitas has now got a tarnished reputation, something I to feel is very unfair, but tarnished his reputation is.

Boxing fans are a very unforgiving type, somebody even mentioned on this thread Chavez quitting against De La Hoya because he could taste his own blood , now this sums up just some ignorant views that people can come up with.

The question is just has his reputation been tarnished

Gwyndaff wrote:I have nothing but respect for Tszyu and think it was more to do with his corner calling it off than him quitting, but the problem I have is what he said befoire the fight. "I'd rather die in the ring than quit", or words to that effect. To have read that and then seen him effectively quit, I did lose a certain degree of respect.

Yeah, you're right in noticing that, Gwyndaff, but at the end of the day he's human like the rest of us, and when fatigue settles in with doubt during the heat of battle, a person's perspective on things changes dramatically. I would bet serious money that about 98% of people who say they'd rather die than quit (and actually believe it themselves when they say it fresh and healthy) would change their tune under certain circumstances. Maybe not the same circumstances as Tsyzu, but it's all about testing your limit, and your reactions once you cross it. Really it's something a person needs to experience at the end of the day - words don't work.

This may sound strange but I actually have MORE respect for Tszyu now than I did before. How many fighters, in sutuations like this, have claimed injury or illness, something wrong, and said they just weren't right?

Tszyu, on the other hand, was one of the minority. Sure, he made noises beforehand about going out on his shield if needs be, but reality will always kick in during a fight itself. Most of us were surprised at Hatton's quality, so I'm sure Kostya was taken aback to a certain extent as well.

He's a great fighter, an Saturday's fight will never change that. However. Tszyu realised that he wasn't going to win, he and his corner just didn't have it in him to pull the fight round in the last three minutes. What's the use of going out and shipping punches for three minutes, any of which potentially could prove lasting. He knew Hatton was the better man, and he had the guts to say so afterwards. Hatton was better and he was beaten by a better fighter.

To me, that's a mark of a true champion. Quality fighter and a quality reaction when finding the man who can beat you.

zoo has sacked his trinaer for pulilng him out of the fight
thought it was more kostya than his trinaer but apparently not if this is to be believed. Gues he wouldnt sack him unless he had a reason surely.

There's a shocker. I was just watching it earlier and was listening/looking out for Tsyzu saying anything, but he didn't appear to say anything while they were deliberating apart from 'water'.

But seriously, I think Tszyu wanted to quit badly - and his mind was telling him to - but because he's a true fighter his mouth couldn't get the words out. Maybe this is a bit of PR to deflect the jibes being spewed across cyberspace from the 'fans' - I know Kostya likes to read the internet.

i think you may be right Manos, i thought he would retire anyway so this seems the first indication he will fight on.

why sack a trainer if you have no intention of boxing on?

J wrote:zoo has sacked his trinaer for pulilng him out of the fight
thought it was more kostya than his trinaer but apparently not if this is to be believed. Gues he wouldnt sack him unless he had a reason surely.

Apparentley Tszyu didn't say anything in the corner except water so Johnny Lewis stopped the fight after he asked Tszyu if he wanted to continue and got no responce.

Ben Keilty wrote:Apparentley Tszyu didn't say anything in the corner except water so Johnny Lewis stopped the fight after he asked Tszyu if he wanted to continue and got no responce.

The silence was deafening, as they say.

Boxers know the score, if you get asked by your corner if you want to fight on, you either say "Yes" or keep your mouth shut.

One other thing about this drama is that people have been making a deal about it 'only' being the last round. Let's not forget folks that in boxing every second of those three minutes is akin to sudden death in a penalty shoot out. Also worth remembering the set of rounds in fights that serious injury is most likely to occur.

We all know about Zoo's fearsome training regime, he'll understand better than anybody if his body was showing signs of packing up. What's the point of trying to play an extra 3 moves when checkmate is inevitable?

Anyone who has lost respect for Tszyu should get a grip and look at what can happen when a corner gets caught up in the moment and forgets that they're there to look after their man – ie Paul Ingle.

How anyone can ever question a guy like Jonny Lewis, who's been with Tsyzu all his career is ridiculous.

For him to pull his man out must have been the hardest decision he'll ever be likely to make – it's his job on the line too – but he did it because he felt it was the professional thing to do. And Lewis will have forgotten a hundred things more about Tszyu than we'll ever know.

And don't forget – Tszyu was hardly jumping around having a go was he? Why – because he was finished.