Tim Tszyu Believes Fundora Rematch On July 19th Will Be “Whole Different Fight” Without Early Cut Disadvantage

Tim Tszyu believes his rematch with WBC junior middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora on July 19th will be a much different fight because he won’t be at a disadvantage from an early cut. If Tszyu loses the rematch, he’ll have to confront the truth that he’s not good enough.

The former WBO 154-lb champion Tszyu (25-2, 14 KOs) is getting a rematch with Fundora (22-1-1, 14 KOs) despite having a 1-2 record in his last three fights. It’s not an ideal record for a challenger to have, but Tszyu remains popular in his native Australia.

Amazon Prime Video PPV Fight

They’ll be fighting on the undercard of Manny Pacquiao vs. Mario Barrios at the Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The event will be shown on Amazon Prime Video PPV.

Tszyu’s Cut: Was It to Blame?

“The disadvantage that I had, it was much easier the first time. The second time, it’s going to be a whole different fight,” said Tim Tszyu to Fighthype about his rematch against Sebastian Fundora on July 19th.

It would be a mistake for Tszyu to put the entire blame on his loss to the cut he sustained in the second round from an elbow from Fundora. Tszyu was getting hit a lot well before the cut occurred, and you could tell that it was going to be a long night.

“There will be multiple game plans on both sites, and they’ll have to be adapted. I’m not sure what he’s going to bring out first, but I’m not really focused on that. He’s going to have to deal with what I have to show,” said Tszyu about his fight with Fundora.

Tszyu doesn’t have the reach to box Fundora, and he can’t match Fundora’s high punch output. Tim’s only path to victory would be for him to knock him out, and he’s going to get hit a lot while trying. Tszyu can’t count on Fundora shelling up against the ropes like his last opponent, Joseph Spencer, did.

Tszyu: Systematically Breaking Down Opponents?

“I’m able to systematically break someone down and be patient with it. There’s a wide range of things you can do against an opponent like that. You’ve got to be able to do it from round one, and slowly bring up the pace,” said Tszyu.

What Tszyu says about “systematically” breaking down an opponent sounds good, but his recent victory against Joseph Spencer was against a low-level opponent. It’s easy to come across sounding like an expert when fighting that level of fighters.

Tszyu failed miserably in his third-round knockout loss to IBF junior middleweight champion Bakhram Muratazaliev last October, and he struggled in his loss to Fundora last year. If he were capable of breaking down an opponent, why didn’t he do that against Bakhram and Fundora?

Tszyu looked lost in both of those fights, and he had no answers in his ability to adapt. It was much worse in his loss to Murtazaliev. He kept charging straight into his punches and dropped repeatedly.