By Norm Frauenheim
LAS VEGAS — Tim Tszyu saw why boxing is called bloodsport. He saw a lot it. All his.
His craft — the inescapable nature of his sport — was defined by his blood in a gruesome fight that left him looking more like an accident victim than the warrior he has chosen to be about 16 months ago in a split-decision loss to Sebastian Fundora.
Tszyu remembers what he saw. Or, perhaps what he couldn’t.
“I was distracted,’’ he said Thursday, nearly a year-and-a-half after he was cut at the end of the second round at the top of his forehead and at the center of his hairline at Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena in March 30, 2024. “When I went back to my corner, I wasn’t thinking about my fight. I was thinking about the blood.’’
It never quit.
Neither did he.
Tszyu fought on, his vision obscured and his focus distracted. But that blood, including the DNA that motivated him to endure through the 12th round, continues to drive him now. He fights on, hoping only that the bleeding won’t resume. Still, he’s hell-bent on risking that and perhaps more in a rematch Saturday that he has pursued since Fundora turned his face into a crimson mask. For more than 10 rounds, he couldn’t see clearly. The clarity of what he seeks, however, has always been there.
“That answers the question of why my corner didn’t stop the fight,’’ Tszyu said of the first bout that ended with Fundora winning on two cards, 116-112 and 115-113. The third card favored Tszyu, 116-112.
Fundora left the ring with two junior-middleweight belts and newfound stardom. Tszyu was left with his first loss and all the stitches.
In the wake of the nasty defeat, there were doubts, many left by a third-round stoppage loss to Bakhram Murtazaliev, who knocked him down four times before his corner surrendered in a stunning stoppage in October, 2024 in Orlando. Suddenly, it looked as if blood and more had been lost on that shocking night against Fundora.
Tszyu went on to scored a fourth-round TKO of Joseph Spencer last April at home in Australia. It was a solid stoppage, but it didn’t exactly stop some of the questions about whether the promises in Tszyu’s career had been stopped, all in one bloody night.
Tszyu, the son of feared Kostya Tszyu, is back in Vegas to say that it hasn’t been.
“I will put together a different performance,’’ said Tszyu, who will share the stage in a co-main event to a card featuring 46-year-old Manny Pacquiao’s comeback against welterweight champion Mario Barrios at the MGM’s Grand Garden Arena. “A more intelligent one.’’
Tszyu’s bloodied, yet narrow loss to Fundora was preceded by complications. Initially, the opponent was supposed to be Keith Thurman. But Thurman got hurt in training, forcing a late switch.
Twelve days before opening bell, the skinny, yet NBA-tall Fundora got the gig and the improbable victory that has put him on the fringe of enduring stardom. In part, perhaps, he’s fighting Tszyu a second time to prove that his emergence is more about his skillset and poise than his 6-foot-6 height.
Fundora relinquished a belt, bypassing a mandatory defense against Xander Zayas for a rematch with Tszyu. Against Tszyu, there’s a chance for Fundora to validate his place in the boxing galaxy, even at the risk of more blood.
“Yeah, why not,’’ Fundora said Thursday in a tone that suggested it would not be his blood.
The only promise from both is that their bout will steal much of the anticipated thunder from Pacquiao and Barrios.
“May the best man win, but we just don’t know who the best man is yet,’’ Tszyu said in a matter-of-fact way that says he’s willing to bleed some more to answer that
