Bob Santos doesn’t believe Tim Tszyu should be judged by his stoppage defeat by Bakhram Murtazaliev. The trainer is optimistic that Tszyu will come back stronger and reign as champion again.
Australia’s Tszyu suffered a second successive loss to Murtazaliev of Russia earlier in October. The 29 year old was knocked down four times en route to a devastating third-round stoppage at the hands of the IBF junior-middleweight champion.
According to Santos, all is regardless not lost for Tszyu, who he believes has the quality to turn his career around in the future – and lost because his father, Kostya, once rebuilt after being stopped by Vince Phillips.
“Tim Tszyu is a great competitor,” Santos told BoxingScene. “I'm sure everybody in his team has the utmost confidence in him and this is boxing – anything can happen at any time against anybody with one punch.
“Anybody who steps in the ring with the other guy, the other guy has got two hands too, and sometimes you could just get caught with one punch. It doesn't change the fact that I still think Tim Tszyu’s gonna be a star. I still think he's gonna be a world champion.”
Tszyu’s disappointing performance against Murtazaliev, 31, had raised concerns over whether he had fully recovered from the cut he suffered from loss to Sebastian Fundora in March. Questions were also asked of his promoters No Limit Boxing for putting him straight into a world championship fight after his first defeat
Santos, however, is confident Tszyu will follow in the footsteps of his father Kostya, who lost his IBF junior-welterweight title to Philips in 1997 but returned as an improved fighter.
“When you look at his dad, he was able to come back from a situation like that, and I have no doubt that he will,” Santos continued. “Everybody could say whatever they wanna say. I get it but at the end of the day, he's a competitor. He wants to be the absolute best. That's what's gonna make him a world champion again.
“And, hey. You know what? He just got caught with a punch he didn't see coming, and that can happen to anybody in boxing.”
Santos advised Tszyu to take time off to prepare adequately for his comeback. The respected trainer also compared Tszyu’s situation to that of Marco Antonio Barrera, who suffered two consecutive defeats to Junior Jones in 1997 but managed to win another championship.
“Obviously, he needs to regroup, freshen up his body, mindset, get back on the horse, and continue to work hard. And there's no doubt he's gonna win a world championship again. That's the unfortunate thing about this sport.
“I'll give you another example – Marco Antonio Barrera lost to Junior Jones and people thought his career was over. All he needs to do is believe in himself, get a fresh new look of how he wants to go about moving things forward, have that plan, stick to that plan, and he'll be a world champion again.”
Bernard Neequaye is a sports journalist with a specialty in boxing coverage. He wrote a boxing column titled “From The Ringside” in his native Ghana for years. He can be reached on X (formerly Twitter) at @BernardNeequaye, LinkedIn at Bernard Neequaye and through email at bernardneequaye@gmail.com.