Fighter of the Week 3/6-3/12 Tim Tszyu
In the first week of a great run for the sweet science, Tim Tszyu gave the hometown fans in Sydney, Australia, a show they will never forget in absolutely taking apart and dominating former world champion Tony Harrison over nine mostly one-sided rounds to secure the best win of his promising career, move his record to 22-0 (16), pick up the WBO interim junior middleweight strap and takes home our Fighter of the Week Award and secures himself a fight with Jermell Charlo in what was a career-best performance for the 28-year-old from Australia.
If Tszyu was going to pick up a career-best win and get past former world champion Tony Harrison, he was going to have to get past his jab, apply pressure and break his man down. That's exactly what the Australian did after a slow, uneventful first round. Tszyu started pressuring Harrison in the second, getting closer and touching Tszyu. He was starting to put hands on the elusive American. By round three, Tszyu seized control of their fight and rocked Harrison with a right hand to the head that staggered the former champ. The body shots begin to take their toll as well, a barrage of body shots in the fifth took the steam out of the American, and Tszyu was no longer chasing his opponent but controlling him. The end came quickly a few rounds later in the ninth. A right hand started a rally for Tszyu, who capped off the night with a barrage of power shots that left Harrison unable to respond and brought in the referee to call a halt to the bout.
Tszyu is no longer just the son of a legend, a son of perhaps the greatest 140-pounder to ever wander the earth. He is his own man, his own fighter, and on the verge of becoming a legit world champion. Not a manufactured one. A legitimate world champion on his own merit. He is going to fight undisputed 154-pound world champion Jermell Charlo in a mega fight next. Outside of Australia, this was viewed as a one-sided mismatch, and Tszyu was viewed as a good, not a great fighter, who was riding nepotism to the world's biggest stage. That's not the case anymore! Tszyu will still probably enter as the underdog against Charlo, and rightfully so, but a live dog that will give Charlo all he can handle in a fight either man COULD win.
