Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Boxing Challenge: Tszyu stops Horn

Australia's superfight turned out to be competitive for one round and that first round was pretty close.

After that round, Tim Tszyu took command, knocked Jeff Horn twice in the third round, and delivered a beating that should send Horn into retirement after his corner ended the one-sided drubbing at the end of the eighth round.

The first round was evenly fought and could have been scored for either fighter.
I scored it for Horn, but there would not be another round that Horn could stake a claim for his own and the speed of Tszyu was too much for the veteran, who couldn't start anything on offense other than an occasional right hand that Tszyu was able to walk through.
Tszyu controlled the exchanges and surprisingly was able to outmuscle the larger and expected to be the stronger of the two fighters.

Tszyu, the son of the former unified junior welterweight champion, showed speed and power in his first fight against world-class competition, although it remains to be determined if this version of Jeff Horn was still at that level.
Tyszu will likely move up in the rankings after this win after entering 6th in the IBF and 9th in the WBO with Horn being ranked ahead of him in the WBO ratings and I could see an interesting match with WBO champion Patrick Teixeria as a possibility soon.
Should the money (and international travel allowed) be available, I would guess that Teixeria would be willing to travel to Australia for a sizable purse increase.
I'd rate Tszyu as a slight favorite over Teixeria and as a solid underdog against either of the participants in the unification fight next month for the other three titles between Jermell Charlo (WBC) and Jeison Rosario (WBA and IBF), but I wouldn't rate him as having no chance at all against either champion.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica added one point and cut into my lead at 94-87.

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