Harrison Confused on Tszyu’s Mandatory Status

Former Junior Middleweight champion Tony "The Tiger" Harrison seems to be confused about how Tim Tszyu got into position to fight Jermell Charlo for all four major belts. To clarify for the former champ, who upset Charlo in 2018 before being stopped by Charlo a year later in the rematch, the answer is, of course, Terrell Gausha. Tszyu defeated Gausha in March of '22 via unanimous decision. That win captured the WBO Global 154-pound title as well made him the mandatory for the WBO champion. The WBO champion happens to be Jermell Charlo, who happens to hold the other three belts. When Tszyu was ordered to fight Charlo for the WBO belt, the two agreed to fight for all four belts. Charlo agreed to defend all four belts. So who did Tszyu fight to get to fight for every 154-pound belt? The answer is Terrell Gausha. If you think that is not a worthy name to put you into the mandatory position, that's a reasonable argument. If you think Tszyu is benefitting from nepotism for being the son of Kostya Tszyu, a hall of famer and legend of the sport, that's an argument as well. It's noteworthy to mention the only belt of the four majors that the elder Tszyu never held was the WBO. He held the other three, none of those sanctioning bodies mandated Tszyu. If you think Tszyu got to skip the line that's a problem with the WBO, not Tszyu.

Harrison will travel to fight the WBO Global champ for the interim title on March 12th in his backyard at the Qudos Bank Arena, in Sydney Australia. Tszyu has fought in Sydney a number of times, most recently in November of 2021 when he dominated Takeshi Inoue over 12 rounds. Tszyu is listed as about a 2-1 betting favorite and the winner of the belt will be mandated to fight Charlo when he returns from injury. Charlo is currently sidelined after sustaining a left scaphoid fracture and 5th metacarpal base fracture. He was originally scheduled to fight the Australian on January 28th which was ditched in December when Charlo injured the hand.