Kostya Tszyu-where does he rank?

[Young Herschel]

As someone already mentioned, if you keep it to guys who strictly spent large chunks.of their career at 140 then tszyu ranks high, but if you take in guys who have stopped over at 140, he'd get beat by many, Oscar and a tough fight with floyd. Khan and Bradley would make great fights too.

Kostya would have knocked Khan the hell out in his prime . . . without question and with either hand too.

Bradley wouldn't have won against Kostya either . . . because he couldn't outbox Tszyu or outthink him either. His high workrate and his vulnerable defense would make him a prime target for the quick counter punching of the highly-educated Siberian . . . if he thought the Siberian Rocky was a problem, then Tszyu finishes him with his educated boxing approach.

ODLH never really wanted to take any high-risk fights . . . every thing was well-calculated by Top Rank. JCC was the much bigger name and was quite removed from his prime; this was why he never challenged Kostya in the mid 1990's . . . it was a fight he was more likely to lose. At 140 in the mid 1990's this is a damn even fight in my opinion but I would favor Kostya because his skill set would present problems that ODLH wouldn't like lol

[young_robbed]

Sadly, HBO and Floyd Mayweather never really, really wanted to make this superfight happen in the middle of the 2000's.

Kostya Tsyzu was the undisputed and universal Junior Lightweight Champion of the World and he has unanimously defeated his mandatory challenger to all three belts . . . Floyd elects to fight an optional challenger from the Dominican Republic in Mr. Sosa and then take a mandatory challenge from Mr. Juuko. It should have been full speed ahead and all systems go once Tsyzu cleared the slate for Floyd by defeating his mandatory challenger, that power slugger from Ghana-Africa.

The only answer which comes to mind is that HBO was merely blowing smoke and the didn't really want that PPV super bout to happen and neither did Team Mayweather. There was every opportunity to move up and fight for all the belts at 140 pounds . . . but Team Mayweather decided to voluntarily face that Dominican Sosa instead of Tsyzu and then the South African Juuko next in a bout that was far less significant and could have been avoided all together or at least postponed until after he fought Kostya

Floyd was completely down to fight Kostya. Floyd was down to fight Naseem Hamed, prime Shane Mosley, etc. Kostya is not a guy Floyd was afraid to fight.

[TBear]

Floyd was completely down to fight Kostya. Floyd was down to fight Naseem Hamed, prime Shane Mosley, etc. Kostya is not a guy Floyd was afraid to fight.

Fighters call out other fighters all the time publicly but when it comes to signing a contract it's different. I remember Mayweather calling out Sergio Martinez publicly after the Ortiz fight, but when Martinez said ok. suddenly he was too big.

[beez721]

Floyd was completely down to fight Kostya. Floyd was down to fight Naseem Hamed, prime Shane Mosley, etc. Kostya is not a guy Floyd was afraid to fight.

mayweather would have never risked it against kostya

[young_robbed]

Fighters call out other fighters all the time publicly but when it comes to signing a contract it's different. I remember Mayweather calling out Sergio Martinez publicly after the Ortiz fight, but when Martinez said ok. suddenly he was too big.

Yeah Floyd ducked a few people for sure. Namely Paul Williams, Prime Cotto, & Martinez. I don't think he didn't want to fight Tszyu though. He would've taken Tszyu to school, honestly.

[Cyberspace]

Tszyu had a lot more power than the guys Mayweather would fight and he was a much better boxer than Gatti. Would have liked to seen it no matter who people think would win.

[Sugar Adam Ali]

It amazes me in the history section that posters hype up tzsyu

He was a very good fighter, great skills, hall of fame career, but he isnt atg..

He never beat any hall of famers, and his best win was Judah, great win at the time but not an atg win..

Calzaghe, hatton, cotto etc all have better resumes..

Tzsyu like Aaron Pryor, is more myth than reality... Had they landed the truely big fights, I doubt their legend would be as great..

No doubt in my mind 96-97 oscar knocks out Kosta, and sugar Shane had he ever fought at 140 would have beaten him..

I loved tszyu as a fighter, great to watch but no doubt gets overrated in historical terms..

Beating tackie, leija, shambra, zab is good but not great

[young_robbed]

It amazes me in the history section that posters hype up tzsyu

He was a very good fighter, great skills, hall of fame career, but he isnt atg..

He never beat any hall of famers, and his best win was Judah, great win at the time but not an atg win..

Calzaghe, hatton, cotto etc all have better resumes..

Tzsyu like Aaron Pryor, is more myth than reality... Had they landed the truely big fights, I doubt their legend would be as great..

No doubt in my mind 96-97 oscar knocks out Kosta, and sugar Shane had he ever fought at 140 would have beaten him..

I loved tszyu as a fighter, great to watch but no doubt gets overrated in historical terms..

Beating tackie, leija, shambra, zab is good but not great

Come on man. pryor was better than Tszyu. He definitely was. You don't have to look much past the Arguello fight (black bottle aside) to see what Pryor was made out of. He proved he was an ATG that night. Pryor also beat Cervantes, Blackmoore, and a few other guys like Sang-Hyun Kim. He only truly lost when he was past his prime against Bobby Joe Young. so he is a bit different than Tszyu.

[Humean]

No. What this analysis proves, is that Tszyu's resume is lacking. Lacking a lot of names. Like I said his best name is probably Judah. Beating up and old Chavez and Roger Mayweather does not make one great. What I said about Phillips beating Tszyu is 100% true. The same Vince Phillips that got destroyed by Quartey in 3 rounds and the same one that lost to Terron Millett. Phillips utterly destroyed Tszyu when Tszyu was in his prime. Is this correct? yes it is correct. Phillips was no great fighter, and very inconsistent.

Tszyu has Julio Cesar Chavez on his record, very good name no? Yet of course it was not one of his better wins as Chavez was by that stage at best a top 20 140 pounder, not the great fighter he had once been. So much for names on record.

I'm saying that Tszyu is in the top 10 140 pounders there has been. I think that makes him a great junior welterweight. Who are these junior welterweights who have all the great 'names' on their resume that so clearly put them ahead of Tszyu? I can think of as little as a few and at most about half a dozen or so. Not many.

Nobody said that losing to Phillips is not a major negative against Tszyu's career but that loss was not the essence of his career. Was Sugar Ray Robinson's loss to Randy Turpin the essence of Robinson's career? Duran's loss to Laing? Arguello's loss to Fernandez? Chavez's loss to Randall? Napoles' loss to Brackus? Need I go on?

Also, what is this supposed to mean?


Is this supposed to mean that Tszyu would always beat Roger mayweather and chavez sr if they were in their primes? Most people would disagree with you there. I hate to break it to you, but those wins are nothing special.

No that was not exactly what I meant. My point was more general, that the 'primeness' of a fighters career can always be called into question once they lose a fight or fail to look good. In the case of Chavez and Mayweather they were definitely past their best but there are always many examples when it is far more debatable. The conclusion to draw from that is not to read so much into individual wins because it can be very difficult to determine whether the man defeated was defeated because his opponent was so very good or because he was so very bad. By watching Tszyu's fights throughout his entire career you can get a proper sense of his abilities and his achievements rather than focussing on each individual fight as if you can add a number value to each individual fight and through arithmetic come to a conclusion about a fighter's greatness.

[Humean]

It amazes me in the history section that posters hype up tzsyu

He was a very good fighter, great skills, hall of fame career, but he isnt atg..

He never beat any hall of famers, and his best win was Judah, great win at the time but not an atg win..

Calzaghe, hatton, cotto etc all have better resumes..

Tzsyu like Aaron Pryor, is more myth than reality... Had they landed the truely big fights, I doubt their legend would be as great..

No doubt in my mind 96-97 oscar knocks out Kosta, and sugar Shane had he ever fought at 140 would have beaten him..

I loved tszyu as a fighter, great to watch but no doubt gets overrated in historical terms..

Beating tackie, leija, shambra, zab is good but not great

If you are an historically (more limited history that some other divisions) top 10 junior welterweight then are you not a great junior welterweight? Or do you think you can name 10 better or greater junior welterweights?

Surely someone could reasonably question the resume of both De La Hoya and Mosley at 135-140 and 135 respectively in the same way that you are questioning Tszyu? You may be right that De La Hoya and Mosley would have defeated Tszyu but is that a big criticism of him? I am convinced it would be far from a mismatch and that Tszyu would have stood a pretty good chance against both around the late 90s.

Come on man. pryor was better than Tszyu. He definitely was. You don't have to look much past the Arguello fight (black bottle aside) to see what Pryor was made out of. He proved he was an ATG that night. Pryor also beat Cervantes, Blackmoore, and a few other guys like Sang-Hyun Kim. He only truly lost when he was past his prime against Bobby Joe Young. so he is a bit different than Tszyu.

Oh the irony!