Tag Archives: Tim Tszyu

Vergil Ortiz Finalizing Deal for Junior Middleweight Fight Against Serhii Bohachuk in August

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Vergil Ortiz Jr. is thisclose to locking in his next opponent…

The 26-year-old Latino boxer, who has held the World Boxing Organization (WBO) International welterweight title since 2021, and Serhii Bohachuk are finalizing a deal for an August 10 junior middleweight fight in Las Vegas, per ESPN sources.

Vergil Ortiz Jr.Ortiz (21-0, 21 KOs) was set to fight former champion Tim Tszyu on August 3 in Los Angeles — part of the Terence Crawford–Israil Madrimov undercard — before the Aussie withdrew last month due to injury.

Now, Ortiz will headline a Golden Boy Promotions on DAZN card one week later.

The bout will be Ortiz’s third this year.

In January, he ended a 17-month layoff caused by rhabdomyolysis (a condition that occurs when damaged muscle tissue releases its proteins and electrolytes into the blood).

Both of Ortiz’s comeback fights have ended in the first round, wins over Fredrick Lawson and Thomas Dulorme. The matchup with Bohachuk raises Ortiz’s competition level significantly.

Texas’ Ortiz is ESPN’s No. 4 boxer at 154 pounds; Bohachuk is No. 6.

Ukraine’s Bohachuk, 29, is coming off a career-best performance, a wide-points victory over contender Brian Mendoza in March.

Bohachuk suffered his lone pro defeat in March 2021, an eighth-round TKO vs. Brandon Adams.

Sebastian Fundora to Defend WBC/WBO Belts Against Errol Spence Jr. in October

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Sebastian Fundora has secured his next opponent.

The 26-year-old Mexican American professional boxer and unified light middleweight champion and Errol Spence Jr. have agreed to a deal for a junior middleweight title fight in Dallas this October, per ESPN.

Sebastian FundoraFundora will defend his WBC and WBO belts, which he won in a split-decision upset over Tim Tszyu in March.

PBC‘s hope is to stage the Prime Video PPV event at AT&T Stadium if the finalized date fits into the Dallas Cowboys‘ home schedule.

Spence, 34, has competed there twice, with wins over Mikey Garcia and Yordenis Ugas.

Following Fundora’s victory against Tszyu, Spence stepped into the ring and called him out, saying, “It’s time to get it on. He got a pretty good height, but we’ll see. We’ll break him down like we always do.”

Sebastian FundoraIndeed, Fundora possesses uncanny height for a 154-pounder at 6-foot-5½ with an 80-inch reach. The 26-year-old’s first title victory came on the heels of his lone defeat, a seventh-round KO loss to Brian Mendoza in one of 2023’s most surprising results.

One year later, Fundora (21-1-1, 14 KOs) is ESPN‘s top junior middleweight after he replaced the injured Keith Thurman on 11 days’ notice to outlast Tszyu.

Known as “The Towering Inferno,” Fundora and his sister Gabriela are the first brother and sister to be full-fledged champions in boxing history.

Spence, meanwhile, will make his 154-pound debut after July’s ninth-round TKO loss to Terence Crawford for the undisputed welterweight championship. Spence (28-1, 22 KOs) was a mainstay of ESPN‘s pound-for-pound list before the setback.

He recently parted ways with Derrick James, who trained him since his amateur days that culminated in an Olympic run at the 2012 London Games.

Spence and James have sued each other surrounding a disagreement over money.

Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz Overpowers & Dethrones WBA Super Lightweight Champion Rolando “Rolly” Romero

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Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz has claimed his first major title…

The 25-year-old Mexican professional boxer (26-2-1, 18 KOs) overpowered and dethroned WBA super lightweight champion Rolando “Rolly” Romero (15-2, 13 KOs) after getting an eighth round referee’s stoppage on Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Isaac "Pitbull" CruzCruz set the tone early, with wild overhand rights that whistled by the head of Romero.

Then Cruz put on a masterclass in stalking and cutting off the ring against Romero.

Finally, Cruz completed his beatdown of Romero with at least six straight shots to the head, forcing referee Tom Taylor to stop the fight at 56 seconds of the eighth round.

With the win, Cruz took Romero’s WBA junior welterweight world title on the co-main event of a card headlined by a junior middleweight title fight between Tim Tszyu and Sebastian Fundora.

“I didn’t want to come here and just win,” said Cruz. “I wanted to massacre Rolly and make him eat all the garbage he said to me. …I fought with the intention to leave the decision out of the judges’ hands.”

Mission accomplished.

The relentless Cruz so dominated the fight that Romero had to be checked by the ringside doctor before heading out for the fateful eighth round. Romero almost went down in the first round after taking a left hook to the forehead, was docked a point for holding in the fifth and was again saved by the ropes in the seventh after taking a big right uppercut to the chin that essentially had him out on his feet.

Cruz has now won four straight fights since losing a unanimous decision to Gervonta Davis on December 5, 2021 in Los Angeles.

“I was prepared for this. I wasn’t here to just fight. I was here to terminate him,” said Cruz. “I did my talking right here in the ring. And I did this not just for me but for everybody that is here at T-Mobile Arena. There’s going to be a Mexican champ at 140 pounds for a long time.”

The taller Romero, who fights out of Las Vegas but felt no home-ring advantage with a raucous pro-Mexico crowd, fell to 15-2 as he has now lost two of this last three fights.

He lost by a sixth-round TKO against Davis on May 28, 2022 in Brooklyn for the WBA’s lightweight title before stopping Ismael Barroso for the WBA’s junior welterweight title on May 13, 2023 in Las Vegas. He never looked comfortable with the way Cruz cut the ring off on him, while absorbing so many power shots.

Vergil Ortiz Jr. Scores First-Round TKO Victory Over Frederick Lawson

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Vergil Ortiz Jr. has notched a convincing victory…

The 25-year-old Mexican American professional boxer scored a first-round TKO victory on Saturday in Las Vegas in a stoppage that was vehemently disputed by his opponent, Frederick Lawson.

Vergil Ortiz Jr.Ortiz, in his first fight in 17 months, buckled Lawson with a jab that backed him up. With Lawson lying on the ropes, Ortiz (20-0, 20 KOs) threw a flurry of left hooks to the body and overhand rights until referee Tony Weeks halted the action at 2 minutes, 33 seconds of the opening round.

Weeks told DAZN‘s Beto Duran that he stopped the bout because he saw Lawson’s eyes roll into the back of his head. Lawson, a 34-year-old Ghanaian who entered the fight as a huge underdog, passionately protested.

“I think that he got saved,” said Ortiz, who was making his junior middleweight debut. “I was hurting him with all the jabs. I wasn’t really putting anything behind it. … I love to fight. I wish I could have kept going. I need the rounds.”

Since March 2022, Ortiz has withdrawn from three fights due to health issues related to rhabdomyolysis, a condition that occurs when damaged muscle tissue releases its proteins and electrolytes into the blood.

Ortiz was rated No. 3 by ESPN at 147 pounds when he was set to meet Eimantas Stanionis last year. That bout was postponed three times; first after Stanionis underwent an emergency appendectomy and then twice due to Ortiz’s rhabdomyolysis recurrence.

With his health restored, Ortiz returned Saturday at a 156-pound catchweight shake-off-the-rust bout. And he did so with renowned trainer Robert Garcia back in his corner following a split in 2021.

Ortiz, a Dallas-area native, maintained his perfect knockout record with the victory over Lawson (30-4, 22 KOs). Now he wants his first world title shot.

“I’m ready for anyone out there,” said Ortiz, whose breakout 2021 campaign featured inside-the-distance wins over Maurice Hooker and Egidijus Kavaliauskas. “It feels like I’m back to doing what I usually do. This is my calling; this is what I live for.”

Ortiz called out Tim Tszyu, the WBO junior middleweight champion.

“With all respect, I would love to fight you,” Ortiz said in his call out. “I think you’re a hell of a fighter and let’s make this happen. … I want to fight the best.”

Ortiz’s promoter, Hall of Fame fighter Oscar De La Hoya, said Ortiz “will even go to Australia to fight Tim Tszyu.”

Tszyu, the son of Hall of Famer Kostya Tszyu, issued a response to Ortiz in a post on X, welcoming him to the 154-pound division and saying, “I’m always keen for a modern day classic.

Canelo Alvarez Remains Undisputed Super Middleweight Champion with Trouncing of Jermell Charlo

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Canelo Alvarez has defended his undisputed super middleweight championship title once again.

The 33-year-old Mexican boxing superstar defeated Jermell Charlo on Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in a lopsided unanimous-decision victory, leading to his third title defense.

Canelo AlvarezAlvarez floored Charlo in Round 7 with an overhand right, the second knockdown of the challenger’s career, but there weren’t many more opportunities for a knockout.

Charlo wasn’t willing to engage and rarely threw a punch. He moved away from Alvarez’s power shots all night but never attempted to make him pay.

Two judges scored the fight 118-109, with the other tally 119-108.

“Nobody can compete with this Canelo,” said Alvarez, ESPN‘s No. 4 pound-for-pound boxer. “Two months in the mountains [training near Lake Tahoe] without my family. I still love boxing. I love boxing so f—ing much. Boxing is my life. Boxing made me the person I am today.”

Charlo (35-2-1, 19 KOs) entered the ring the undisputed junior middleweight champion and had never competed above 154 pounds before. He was stripped of his WBO title once the fight started and said he would return to 154 pounds, where he still holds three titles. Australian star Tim Tszyu will defend the WBO belt October 14 against Brian Mendoza.

“I feel like it wasn’t me in there,” said Charlo, 33, who fights out of Houston. “I don’t make excuses. You win some, you lose some. I’m undisputed in my weight; I was daring to be great. I’m proud of myself. He didn’t knock me out; he knocked all the other guys out.”

It was clear by the way Charlo competed that he was looking to hear the final bell. Every time Alvarez closed the distance, Charlo slid over, but he wasn’t interested in engaging.

Alvarez (60-2-2, 39 KOs) appeared frustrated as he looked for Charlo to open up and afford him some counterpunching opportunities. It never happened.

Instead, Alvarez piled up points on the scorecards by expertly cutting off the ring with effective aggression and clean body punching, the hallmarks of his legendary career.

Alvarez acknowledged in the lead-up to Saturday’s bout that he wasn’t at his best in his three most recent fights and vowed to return to top form. He did just that. His movement, conditioning and punching combinations all appeared to be peak Canelo, though Charlo never presented much adversity.

Alvarez’s last inside-the-distance win came in November 2021, when he scored an 11th-round TKO of Caleb Plant to capture the undisputed super middleweight championship.

He moved up to 175 pounds for a fight with Dmitry Bivol in May 2022 and suffered his first loss since 2013, when he was outpointed by Floyd Mayweather. Four months later, Alvarez returned to 168 pounds to conclude his trilogy with Gennadiy Golovkin with a victory but faded down the stretch.

Alvarez revealed afterward that he fought Bivol and Golovkin with a serious left wrist injury and underwent surgery in October. His first post-surgery competition came in May when he returned home to Mexico for a decision win over John Ryder.

Canelo broke Ryder’s nose and scored a knockdown but didn’t finish him in a grueling fight. Alvarez conceded this week that his hand wasn’t 100% then and that he was not fully confident in his lead weapon.

After the win over Charlo, he reaffirmed that he is back to form.

“Whoever,” Alvarez said when asked whom he would face when he returns for his next fight on Cinco De Mayo weekend. “I don’t f—ing care.”

This victory was the first of Alvarez’s three-fight deal with PBC, but it was originally slated to come against Charlo’s twin brother, Jermall, the WBC middleweight titleholder. Jermall Charlo didn’t proceed with the planned fight as he dealt with a personal matter, and Alvarez quickly accepted the smaller Charlo as the new opponent.

“They look the same,” Alvarez told ESPN on Wednesday. “Same size, same everything. I don’t really care which Charlo brother it is.”

Charlo called out undisputed welterweight champion Terence Crawford afterward and said he was also open to a fight against the winner of Tszyu-Mendoza. Charlo was set to fight Tszyu in January before he broke his left hand in two places.

Saturday’s fight was Charlo’s first since May 2022, when he scored a 10th-round knockout of Brian Castano in a rematch to win the undisputed junior middleweight championship.

Alvarez, meanwhile, remains the face of boxing and proved without a doubt that he is still on top, quieting the critics who said he was on the decline at age 33 after more than 60 fights.

Brian Castaño to Face Off Against Jermell Charlo Once Again in February

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Brian Castaño is ready to prove he’s the best…

The 32-year-old Argentine professional boxer and Jermell Charlo will meet once again to determine the best junior middleweight in the world.

Brian Castaño,Castaño and Charlo have agreed to terms for a rematch on February 26, 2022, at Toyota Center in Houston that will crown an undisputed 154-pound champion, multiple sources have told ESPN.

All four belts were set to be unified in July, but the bout resulted in a draw. The rematch was threatened by sanctioning body obligations, but it’s expected both mandatory challengers — Tim Tszyu and Bakhram Murtazaliev — will step aside.

“I think … he will try to avoid [the rematch],” Castano, ESPN’s No. 1 junior middleweight, said after the first bout. “He will probably come up with something else. But in reality, it is me who is going to give him the rematch. If he doesn’t want it, OK. We move on to the next fight.”

Only Charlo (34-1-1, 18 KOs) didn’t try to elude the encore encounter. He swept the final three rounds on all three scorecards to pull out the draw, but even he acknowledged the 117-111 tally was “kind of a large range.”

“I do believe I won the fight; I don’t believe it was that close,” said Charlo, ESPN’s No. 2 junior middleweight. “I should be undisputed right now.”

Charlo will have his chance to enter that rarified air once again, and this time, the fight will land in his hometown. The 31-year-old avenged his only loss — a controversial decision vs. Tony Harrison — via 11th-round KO in 2019.

Against Castano, it was Charlo who was on the beneficial end of the controversy. He won the fight 114-113 on one card, with the same score in favor of Castano on the other.

The PBC fight was exhilarating from the opening bell, with Castano (17-0-2, 12 KOs) applying nonstop pressure and Charlo seeking counter-punching opportunities. Down on the scorecards and on the brink of losing his three titles, Charlo connected on a fight-altering counter left hook in Round 10, but the knockdown never materialized.

“He was like belligerent all over the ring; he could barely stand up,” said Jermell Charlo, the twin brother of middleweight champion Jermall Charlo. “I just couldn’t get him out of there. He’s tough as f—.”

Seven months later, Charlo will have another opportunity to prove he’s the best 154-pounder in the world. And so will Castano, who left San Antonio with a bitter taste in his mouth.

“I feel that they robbed me,” Castano said. “I’m not taking anything away from Charlo. He’s a big puncher. He caught me with some good punches at times, but I survived, and overall, I thought I won the fight.

“And needless to say, I want the rematch because he still has the three belts that I need and feel should be mine.”