Notebook: Tszyu 'zoned in' for 1st defense against Mendoza
Inoue-Tapales deal for undisputed at 122 close; Valle goes home to defend; date for Matias-Ergashev; Quick hits; Show and tell
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When the bell rang to begin the fight between undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez and challenger Jermell Charlo, the undisputed junior middleweight champion, on Sept. 30, the WBO stripped Charlo and elevated interim titleholder Tim Tszyu.
But there was no celebration from Tszyu in becoming a full titleholder, as his legendary father, Hall of Fame former undisputed junior welterweight champion Kostya Tszyu, had once been.
Tszyu had no time to celebrate because he had a fight to prepare for — his first defense of the full belt against Brian Mendoza on Saturday (Showtime, 10:30 p.m. ET) at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre in Broadbeach, Australia, where it will be Sunday afternoon.
“I’m zoned in,” Tszyu said at the fight week news conference. “There’s no love at all whatsoever (between me and Mendoza). And that’s what happens with each one of my opponents when I face them. Every little thing frustrates me about them and I just have one thing on my mind and that’s victory by any means.”
Tszyu was hoping he would be defending the undisputed crown. He was scheduled to challenge Charlo for all four major belts in January in Las Vegas, but in December, Charlo fractured his hand in two places and had to withdraw. The fight ultimately was never rescheduled because Charlo wound up getting the much higher-profile and more lucrative chance to face Alvarez.
Tszyu, however, stayed busy. In March, he drilled former WBC titlist Tony Harrison in the ninth round to win the vacant WBO interim title, which was made available while Charlo recovered. Then Tszyu annihilated Carlos Ocampo in 77 seconds in June.
Now that Tszyu (23-0, 17 KOs), 28, has at least one title, he is not about to let Mendoza come to his turf and beat him.
“He’s trying to take away everything that I’ve worked for,” Tszyu said. “As a warrior, this is like me defending my land. He’s coming onto my land and there’s no way I’m going to allow him to try and take it.
“He’s a good guy and I’m not into all that booing and all that stuff. I think when fight night comes he’ll definitely feel the hostile crowd of the Tszyu land. I’m not here to do comparisons (on who’s the bigger puncher). He’s got a couple of real nice highlight KOs and I’ll have to put one on him.”
Indeed, Mendoza scored one of the year’s most sensational knockouts when, tailing badly on all three scorecards, he erased Sebastian Fundora in the seventh round to win the WBC interim belt.
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He was permitted by Team Fundora to bypass Fundora’s right to an immediate rematch when he got the opportunity to fight Tszyu.
Mendoza (22-2, 16 KOs), 29, of Las Vegas, the heavy underdog, plans to make the most of the opportunity.
“It felt incredible,” Mendoza said of the knockout against Fundora. “It’s a feeling that I can’t describe and especially being in an underdog role and still pulling something like that off, it’s a dream come true. It’s a high I’m going to be chasing for the rest of my life.
“The common denominator (of dreams I’ve had about this fight) is that my hand gets raised at the end of the night. I’ve made my own real-life Rocky story. I didn’t mean to start it that way when I started my career but you have ups and downs in life and this is what it is. I clawed my way back from obscurity and now at this point I’m chasing greatness and I want this belt. It will change my life, my family’s life and everybody around me so that’s what I’ll be fighting for in the ring. Love me or hate me, I’m here to win and to get the job done. ”
Not so fast, Tszyu said.
“I’m not looking for just one world title. I’m looking for all four,” said Tszyu, who hopes to eventually meet Charlo, who plans to return to 154 pounds, for the rest of the belts.
Right now, however, he said he is focused on Mendoza.
“I’m in the present moment right now,” Tszyu said. “I’m not thinking about that other bloke.”
In the co-feature, rising Australian featherweight contender Sam Goodman (15-0, 7 KOs), 25, will face former world title challenger Miguel Flores (25-4-1, 12 KOs), 31, of Spring, Texas, in a 12-rounder at a contract weight of 125 pounds.
Goodman is coming off a hard-fought slit decision over Ra’eese Aleem in a junior featherweight eliminator on June 18 on the Tszyu-Ocampo card. Flores is coming off a 10-round majority draw with former three-division titleholder Abner Mares in a lightweight fight 13 months ago.
Inoue-Tapales for undisputed
Japanese pound-for-pound star Naoya Inoue, who holds the WBC and WBO junior featherweight titles, and WBA/IBF titleholder Marlon Tapales are in the process of finalizing a deal that would see them square off for the undisputed 122-pound crown on Dec. 26 in Tokyo.
While there remain “some small issues” to be resolved, one person directly involved in the deal told Fight Freaks Unite, the source said the fight is expected to be finalized next week.
The fight has been in the works since Inoue dominated Stephen Fulton en route to an eighth-round knockout to take his belts on July 25 and Tapales, who was ringside, then joined Inoue in the ring following the bout to get the ball rolling toward their deal.
The fight was viewed as forgone conclusion at this week’s annual WBO convention in the Dominican Republic.
The winner would become the first undisputed champion of the multi-belt era in division history and would make Inoue the second male boxer to become an undisputed champion in two weight classes in the four belt era, joining undisputed welterweight champion Terence Crawford, who also did it at junior welterweight in 2017.
Four-division champion Inoue (25-0, 22 KOs), 30, who moved to 20-0 with 18 knockouts in world title bouts with his win over Fulton, accomplished the feat at bantamweight via one-sided knockout of Paul Butler to add the WBO title to the other three belts last December. Inoue then vacated and moved up to fight Fulton.
Tapales (37-3, 19 KOs), 31, a southpaw from the Philippines and a former bantamweight titleholder, has not fought since claiming a split decision against Murodjon Akhmadaliev to take his two belts in April. He will be a massive underdog against Inoue.
Valle defends in Costa Rica
IBF/WBO women’s strawweight titlist Yokasta Valle will defend her belts against former world titlist Anabel Ortiz on Nov. 4 (DAZN) in the main event of a Golden Boy “Fight Night” card, Golden Boy announced on Friday.
The card will take place at the Polideportivo de Cartago in Cartago, Costa Rica.
Valle (29-2, 9 KOs), 31, of Costa Rica, who will be making her ninth title defense, will be back in action on a quick turnaround. On Sept. 16, she won a near-shutout decision against Maria Santizo in Commerce, California, with the plan to fight at home in November as long as she won and suffered no injuries.
“I feel extremely happy to defend my titles again in my home country of Costa Rica with my people who I know are anxiously waiting for my return to fight,” Valle said. “To know that I will hear them scream ‘Yoka! Yoka! Yoka!’ motivates me even more. This fight will not be the exception, especially fighting against a Mexican boxer who will enter the ring aggressively. Anabel Ortiz is a great fighter who I highly respect. I’ve been waiting to fight her for years, she is a former world champion with a lot of experience, she has defended her titles many times, and she has the desire to become World Champion yet again. I am ready for Nov. 4!”
Ortiz (33-5, 4 KOs), 37, of Mexico, is a two-time strawweight titlist and has won two in a row after back-to-back decision losses in 2021 to Seniesa Estrada in a strawweight title bout and Marlen Esparza in a flyweight title fight.
“I was surprised and full of enthusiasm when I received the news that I would be fighting Yokasta,” Ortiz said. “It’s been a year since I’ve been able to fight, and there’s nothing more motivating than knowing you have an opportunity to fight a world championship.”
BetUS Boxing Show
If you missed the BetUS Boxing Show live at 1 p.m. ET on Friday on YouTube, please check out the replay (and also subscribe to the YouTube channel). We previewed and picked three main events that take place on Saturday: Tim Tszyu’s WBO junior middleweight title defense against Brian Mendoza; the Janibek Alimkhanuly-Vincenzo Gualtieri WBO/IBF middleweight unification bout; and the KSI-Tommy Fury circus fight. We also took viewer questions and comments and discussed the latest boxing news! Please check out the show here:
Listen to our latest podcast episode previewing the weekend fights, news of the week and a look back on the anniversaries of two notable fights.
Quick hits
Weights from Broadbeach, Australia, for Saturday’s No Limit Boxing card on Showtime: Tim Tszyu 153 pounds, Brian Mendoza 154 (for Tszyu’s WBO junior middleweight title); Sam Goodman 124.7, Miguel Flores 124.8; Nathaniel May 129.8, Jackson England 129.7; Shanell Dargan 121.1, Amber Amelia 120.7; Toese Vousiutu 247.2, Julius Long 291.4; Hass Hamdan 141.8, Danvers Cushchieri 142.2; Sergei Vorobev 153.7, Wade Ryan 153.8.
Weights from Rosenberg, Texas, for Saturday’s Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card: Janibek Alimkhanuly 159.3 pounds, Vincenzo Gualtieri (WBO/IBF middleweight unification); Keyshawn Davis 135, Nahir Albright 134.9; Richard Torrez Jr. 233.1, Tyrell Anthony Herndon 234.8; Guido Vianello 241.3, Curtis Harper 275.5; Giovanni Marquez 141.3, Donte Strayhorn 140.2; Duke Ragan 125.3, Jose Perez 126.4; Kelvin Davis 142, Narciso Carmona 142.6; Alan Garcia 137.8, Nelson Hampton 137.3; Humberto Galindo 131.7, Oscar Bravo 130.8; Jakhongir Zokirov 263.5, Guillermo Del Rio 217.1.
IBF junior welterweight titlist Subriel Matias (19-1, 19 KOs), 31, of Puerto Rico, and mandatory challenger Shohjahon Ergashev (23-0, 20 KOs), 31, a southpaw from Uzbekistan fighting out of Detroit, will meet in one of the Showtime PPV bouts on the David Benavidez-Demetrius Andrade card Nov. 25 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, a source with knowledge of the plans told Fight Freaks Unite. TGB Promotions, which promotes PBC events and works with Matias, won an August purse bid for $510,000 to gain control of the bout, beating a $225,000 offer by Ergashev promoter Salita Promotions. Matias, who won the vacant title by fifth-round knockout in a shootout with Jeremias Ponce in February, will be making his first defense. Ergashev has not boxed since August 2022. The fight was initially penciled in for a PBC card on Showtime on Nov. 4, but plans for that date were scrapped.
The WBC announced that Puerto Rico’s McWilliams Arroyo (21-4, 16 KOs), 37, has been stripped of the interim flyweight title for declining a long overdue mandatory rematch with full titlist Julio Cesar Martinez (20-2, 15 KOs), 28, of Mexico. “They were set to meet this coming December as the result of a purse bid and Arroyo will not honor such fight, so he has lost his privileges and interim world championship,” the WBC said in a statement. In June, Eddy Reynoso’s Clase y Talento, the lone bidder, won a purse bid for $345,000. It was to have been a rematch of their wild two-round no contest in November 2021 that ended with Arroyo unable to continue after an accidental head butt. The rematch was postponed several times due to injuries and other issues and now is off entirely. Arroyo has not fought since while Martinez has fought three times, including two defenses.
Show and tell
Future Hall of Famer Nonito Donaire was on his way to 2012 fighter of the year honors when he defended the WBO junior featherweight title against well-respected former titleholder Toshiaka Nishioka and stopped him in the ninth round of a one-sided fight that sent Nishioka into retirement. But as good as Donaire looked that night at the then-Home Depot Center in Carson, California, where I was ringside to cover the proceedings, it was the HBO “Boxing After Dark” co-feature that stole the show. It was a WBO junior welterweight title eliminator between hard-charging brawlers Brandon Rios and Mike Alvarado, who waged a tremendous all-action battle that was a legit fight of the year candidate.
Two judges had the fight even and one had Rios up 58-56 as they went to the seventh round, which was when Rios scored the exciting TKO to end the first fight of what became a trilogy. The superb Top Rank card took place on Oct. 13, 2012 — 11 years ago on Friday. Here is a scarce site poster in my collection.
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Photos: Tszyu-Mendoza: Zain Mohammed/No Limit Boxing; Inoue: Naoki Fukuda
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