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NOTES FROM THE BOXING UNDERGROUND: GOODNIGHT, TSZYU...GOOD NIGHT, PBC

By Paul Magno | October 21, 2024
NOTES FROM THE BOXING UNDERGROUND: GOODNIGHT, TSZYU...GOOD NIGHT, PBC

Social media has made it real hard to hold on to common sense and maintain any degree of consistency in standards. There’s just a lot of crap hurled about by dummies, lazy thinkers, and agenda-wielding creeps. The public discourse surrounding just about any topic these days is about as clear as porta potty sludge. And even those with a clear mind and earnest, honest thinking can fall into the wasteland of pointless stupidity.

We saw a bit of that this past Saturday when Tim Tszyu got utterly kazooed by IBF junior middleweight champ Bakhram Murtazaliev, dropped four times en route to a third-round TKO.

The shocking curb stomping brought a lot of armchair expertise to the forefront of the online Universo Pugilistico. And with that wave of experts washing over social media came a whole lot of hypocrisy.

Before Saturday, Tszyu was the kind of throwback fighter “we needed more of.” He was praised for “wanting all the smoke.” He was gonna cut down all the sissies and prima donnas. Even the weirdo culture warrior PBC haters were begrudgingly giving him his props.

After Saturday, though, Tszyu is a disgrace, a bum, a hype job. The Al Haymon lynch mob diddled themselves on social media over the weekend, crowing about another garbage PBC fighter put into the trash bin, presumably while pinching their nipples and climaxing to pornographic Haymon photoshops.

There are a lot of possible reasons for Tszyu getting crushed.

Maybe Tszyu was overrated all along, a solid fighter who benefited from some favorable matchmaking.

Maybe Tszyu is one of those fighters who can come into fights ill-prepared, who distracts himself with his own press clippings and/or chronically looks past the opposition in front of him. We’ve seen that on a few occasions with him throughout his career and we DID see a lot of looking past Murtazaliev during the lead-in to Saturday’s fight.

It could be that Murtazaliev is just THAT good.

It could be that Murtazaliev just happened to catch him with the right shot at the right time, on the right spot, and Tszyu couldn’t regain his bearings.

All of the above could be true.

But what we do know for certain is that Tszyu is out of the top-tier picture for now and, if he’s not, his team should take him out of it. He needs to work on his focus, his consistency and big technical issues involving his defense and the variation in his offensive attack.

We also know that Murtazaliev winning was not good for anyone’s business other than his own and his flat-lining promoter Main Events’. It doesn’t matter how many self-described hardcore fans flood the internet with praise for some of these Eastern Bloc fighters, none of them will be draws in the US or move the boxing needle one bit here. Murtazaliev, Israil Madrimov, Serhii Bohachuk-- and even established elite-level names like Beterbiev, Bivol, and Usyk-- do almost nothing for the big picture of boxing.

Sorry.

These guys may do well in certain pockets of the world and the Saudis are more than welcome to keep losing money on promoting them, but the sport needs fighters who are bankable in the US market.

Tszyu was someone like that and we honestly don’t have too many of those kinds of fighters anymore. Celebrating his loss is a little like celebrating an outbreak of salmonella at The Olive Garden as you’re finishing a big bowl of pasta carbonara there.

But boxing will go on.

Saturday’s first “free” PBC show on Amazon Prime was really solid. It had a good, almost Boxing After Dark vibe to it with great pacing and a run time that didn’t drag on like a C-Span congressional hearing. Tapia-Saavedra was outstanding, Tellez-Gonzalez was solid, and there was a noteworthy shocker in the main event.

It’s too bad that PBC doesn’t have any more of these shows planned in the foreseeable future. They could build something really nice with cards like this, creating momentum for the pay-per-views while introducing possible new stars to the mix.

This Murtazaliev-Tszyu show, which didn’t really look to be building towards anything no matter who won, seemed more like a “See? We did do a free show” thing. But it was good nonetheless and that’s a plus for boxing.

It’s probably no secret that I’ve soured considerably on the PBC product these last few months. I still like their initial vision and the organization has some good, honest people. I just think they’ve made some recent missteps and have let themselves be disassembled to a considerable degree by the targeted lies and rumors they allow to go unchecked.

I still don’t see the PBC product having any sort of cohesion to it anymore. The company that once targeted the creation of a league-like presence now seems like it’s just airing a bunch of random events and slapping a price tag on everything to stay afloat.

A PBC comeback would be a good thing for boxing, but I’m not holding my breath.

One thing is for certain, though...Tim Tszyu won’t be part of that comeback-- at least, not for now. 

Got something for Magno? Send it here: paulmagno@theboxingtribune.com

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