On the night of October 20, Timofey Tszyu returns to the ring after a heavy defeat from Sebastian Fundora, but the confrontation with Russian Bahram Murtazaliev also does not promise an easy walk. However, the former WBO champion is no stranger to facing serious challenges. Thus, the first trip to the USA turned out to be big problems for the Soul Stealer, which had to be heroically solved during the battle.

“My goal will be to destroy my opponent.”

At the start of his career, Tszyu performed exclusively in Australia. There, the successor to the traditions of the famous boxing dynasty did not find worthy opposition. After 20 fights, Tim collected a large collection of local belts in several versions at once.

The first serious test awaited Tszyu in a fight against American Terrell “Terrible” Gausha (22-2-1), in which he defended his WBO Global title. The fight was planned to take place on March 26, 2022 in the USA, which significantly complicated Timofey’s task.

Gausha is a strong boxer with experience of competing at the 2012 Olympic Games. The American also fought for championship belts in a welterweight bout with Erislandy Lara. But then Gausha lost on points. Terrell’s hallmark was his quality defense. In 24 fights, he never lost early. But the formidable opponent did not bother Timofey at all.

Tim Tszyu and Terrell Gausha / Photo: © Adam Bettcher / Stringer / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

– I will go out to fight to win. From the first second of the fight, my goal will be to destroy my opponent. I will be in his face every second of every round. It is very important for me to perform in the main fight. I dreamed about this since childhood, but now it actually happened, it’s simply unrealistic. “I’m here to loudly declare myself,” Tszyu said before the fight.

However, even at the preparation stage, Timofey faced two big problems. First, he fell ill three days before the fight. Due to his cold, he could not breathe normally. Against this background, the second problem has become more acute. The weight loss was very difficult.

“Some shitty thoughts were spinning”

All these troubles made themselves felt already at the beginning of the fight. The boxers started carefully, feeling for a comfortable distance with the help of jabs. Towards the end of the opening round, the strength of the opponents’ blows began to increase. Timofey actively moved forward, but quickly paid for it. Terrell powerfully punched towards and put Tszyu on the fifth point.

“At that moment, some shitty thoughts were just spinning in my head. This was a lesson for me,” Timofey said after the fight.

Tim Tszyu and Terrell Gausha / Photo: © Adam Bettcher / Stringer / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

It’s good that the hit wasn’t fatal. Tszyu got up and continued the fight. Terrell rushed to finish off his shocked opponent, but Tim quickly recovered and gave a tough fight back. Unfortunately, the round went to the American.

In the second and third rounds, Timofey again acted more actively. At times, the Soul Stealer pinned his opponent in a corner and delivered a series of heavy blows, although competent defense helped the American avoid heavy damage. Despite the advantage, the judges gave the advantage to the local boxer.

Only by the fourth round did Tim convince the referees of his superiority. In this segment, Tszyu began to clearly interrupt his opponent. Terrell even ended up on the floor, but the judge refused to count the knockdown, believing that the American simply lost his balance. The next three segments followed a similar scenario. Tszyu dominated, and Gausha was in deep defense.

In the eighth round, two judges unexpectedly saw Terrell’s rare glimpses of his compatriot’s victory, despite the fact that his head regularly flew up after Tszyu’s precise uppercuts. But this success turned out to be local for the American. Timofey continued to hammer in blow after blow, which allowed him to win by unanimous decision: 114-113, 116-111, 115-112.

The victory not only allowed Tszyu to defend his belt, but also opened the way for him to really big fights. The very next year he became the owner of the full WBO title.

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