Kostya Tszyu

[generalbulldog]

For a long while I thought Tszyu came out of Korea. He looked like one of those Koreans that ran one of those liquor stores in L.A.

[Master]

Kostya was a beast with his right hand and had incredible timing. He had a brilliant amateur pedigree and his demolition of Gonzales, who was a very good fighter was brilliant to watch. He destroyed a prime Judah, like no other fighter has ever done. He was also gracious in his defeat against Hatton and gave a good speech at the end.

[marbleheadmaui]

The best fighters to come out of Australia in at least some sense have been Bob Fitzsimmons and Young Griffo.

The thing about Kostya is almost his whole career starting with Laporte was at a high level.

Good fighter, great champion.

When I think of the HOF? I think Kostya is the marginal guy if induction is to mean anything. By that I mean you shouild have to be more accomplished than Kostya to get in. Less accomplished? You don't.

[generalbulldog]

The best fighters to come out of Australia in at least some sense have been Bob Fitzsimmons and Young Griffo.

The thing about Kostya is almost his whole career starting with Laporte was at a high level.

Good fighter, great champion.

When I think of the HOF? I think Kostya is the marginal guy if induction is to mean anything. By that I mean you shouild have to be more accomplished than Kostya to get in. Less accomplished? You don't.

Barry McGuigan is in, so the bar is already set pretty low.

[marbleheadmaui]

The best fighters to come out of Australia in at least some sense have been Bob Fitzsimmons and Young Griffo.

The thing about Kostya is almost his whole career starting with Laporte was at a high level.

Good fighter, great champion.

When I think of the HOF? I think Kostya is the marginal guy if induction is to mean anything. By that I mean you shouild have to be more accomplished than Kostya to get in. Less accomplished? You don't.

Barry McGuigan is in, so the bar is already set pretty low.

One mistake shouldn't be used to justify another

Sorry guys, you gotta get OUT! Barry, Ingo, Norris, Papp (I feel bad about that one). Mitchell, Canizales, Graham and I'm leaving someone off the list I think.

[Andre]

He was great for the sport an ambassador for it really and drew many fans to it.

I think he was a very good boxer one of the best there was but chose to test himself and others out in slug matches because thats what people came to see and he was there to give the crowd what they wanted.

I know he could box and move better than he ever did in the pros, I was hoping he may of combined the two styles eventually but he became a heavier moving distance measurer for timing heavy hits, instead of being an on the toes evasive counter fighter he once was and a solid footed finisher second.

[THE THIRD MAN]

We never really saw the best of KT, he started in the pros rather late at the age of 23, not his fault due to his background. His style had to alter in the professional ranks because judging a pro fight is completely different to the amateurs. It's a good thing he knocked out most of his opponents. The Phillips loss has tarnished his legacy or so it seems on this forum, losing to a fighter he would beat 99 out of 100 times appears to have dimmed his star in the eyes of many. He didn't lose again for 8 years after that, people have short memories. Tszyu was a class act, he put on a show, sometimes at the detriment of his own performance. He was a crowd pleaser.
We saw glimpses of his brilliance in the ring (Gonzalez being the best example) Judah round 2 shows just how well he could adjust. He never got the big mega fight against Mosley or DLH, a very convenient non occurence for both of those men. He threw out the challenge to JCC after his 4th pro fight and Chavez wanted nothing of it back in 1993. 50% of all his fights were against world champions.
IMO he gives the likes of Whitaker and PBF a torrid time too, in the end injuries and inactivity due to those injuries plus reaching his 36th year beat him. ( i won't discount a little bit of ego too as he gave away far to many concessions to Hatton's people) I don't think he gets the credit for his efforts in the ring considering his 10 year reign at the top and in comparison to the rather sad way Chavez, Mosley, DLH and RJJ have ended their careers. At least Tszyu went out fighting and lost to the young gun at the time in Hatton, He retired at the right time. Hatton on the other hand was never the same fighter again after his fight with Tszyu. There is no bottle or steroid controversy associated with Tszyu, even Mayweather didn't trash talk him! Tszyu was a fighter who fought won and lost, he was a great of the sport and there are to few like him nowadays.

[chinchekked]

Yeah, I remember hearing that Tszyu was extremely ill days before the fight. I thought it was something like diarrhea though. I gotta agree that Tszyu crushes him in the rematch and that Phillips had a really good night. People forget but Phillips was a massive talent in the amateurs and was expected to do huge(I mean HUGE) things in the pros. He grossly underachieved as a pro but he had skills and talent which is why it bothers me when some posters make it seem like Kostya lost to a straight scrub which is not the case