"ANOTHER SOLID WIN FOR  KOSTYA TSZYU"  By Darren Yates from Down Under

 

Kostya Tszyu has once again successfully defended his undisputed crown when Jesse James Leija was unable to continue after the sixth round of their January 18th bout.

This was the second Tszyu fight in a row which failed to provide me a much needed dose of excitement, the kind that only Kostya Tszyu can give me. Once again I was feeling flat after the victory; how I long for another exciting Tszyu fight like his bouts with Zab Judah, Jan Bergman, Hugo Pineda, Jake Rodriguez and Diosbelys Hurtado. There were no knockdowns, no real dramatic climaxes in this bout, just a good, solid performance by a champion in his prime against a cagey veteran.

From the start of round one Leija was very defense-minded keeping a high guard and moving well; he was also clinching Tszyu at every opportunity he could. I was surprised as Leija was stronger than I thought and moved Tszyu a few times in their clinches, I thing his low center of gravity helped here.

Leija's tactics were working as Tszyu continually missed with the right hand and was not able to establish his jab effectively for the first two rounds. Offensively Leija was not overly effective either as most of his punches were wild swings which may have looked good but failed to connect. Leija did have some success in the second round, landing with some crisp punches. Leija's most telling punches were however, low blows which brought about several warnings by the referee. If anyone questioned whether Leija would get a fair go with an Australian referee in control of the action, here is where they should be silenced as the referee could have quite easily deducted a point for low blows; Leija was lucky in this regard. I gave Leija the first two rounds, as I felt he was the more effective fighter even though he did no real damage, but still it was close in these rounds.

Round three was the best round of the fight and where the tide started to turn. Leija started the round landing two body punches and a left hook to the head in quick succession; sensing he had an advantage, Leija attacked Tszyu and backed him up into a corner swinging wildly with eight big punches. It looked impressive but upon a second look at the slow motion replay between rounds, Leija didn't land a clean punch in the wild flurry. Leija looking to press the attack slips on the canvas and seconds after rising, Tszyu connects with a straight right to the nose and follows this up by landing a solid upper cut at the 1:50 minute mark. Tszyu finally establishes his jab at the 1:30 minute mark of the third round and lands a solid four punch combination shortly after, a very good left rip to Leija's body at the 0:47 second mark and the momentum is definitely with Tszyu. Right on the bell Tszyu lands two left hooks to the ear or on the jaw just below the ear, I think these may have been the punches that did the damage to Leija's eardrum.

From the 4th round on Tszyu kept getting stronger, landing heavier and the body punches were starting to take their toll on Leija as he was moving less, holding his gloves higher and swinging with more desperation.

Tszyu's jab was very solid and he was landing his right hands better, if not flush. Leija is putting on a respectable showing but by the time the 6th round came Leija was visibly slowing down and Tszyu's body punches were really hurting him. As Leija became more flat footed, he resorted to throwing another low blow but Tszyu was not phased at all. At this point I thought Leija would be stopped by Tszyu within the next two rounds, but it was not to be with the fight being officially stopped by Leija's corner.

I guess that I am disappointed the bout did not have a more conclusive ending. Yes, I would have liked to have seen Jesse James Leija stopped or KO'ed, but on the other hand I am glad that he did not suffer any major injuries that continuing could have caused. To me it appeared that Leija was more focused on not getting hurt than winning the fight.

This bout reminded me of Tszyu's bout against Sharmba Mitchell, with Leija moving well ducking and clinching at every opportunity whilst fighting back and landing enough punches to show he did want to win. Like Mitchell, Leija's corner stopped the bout and like Mitchell there wasn't much resistance from Leija with this decision (I think that Leija may have said he couldn't continue, I'm not sure as it was hard to hear on the telecast). It is very easy for me to say he should have continued but I wasn't the one with the busted eardrum but I will say that had it been Arturo Gatti, Micky Ward or Oktay Urkal the fight would have continued.

Micky Ward looked in a hell of a lot more trouble with his eardrum injury (in the 2nd Gatti bout); Vernon Forrest said he fought the entire first fight with Mosley with a busted eardrum (and Forrest won that fight!) and Oktay Urkal fought the last five rounds of his bout with Tszyu with a broken jaw. Perhaps guys like Leija and Mitchell chose not to continue out of fear of suffering permanent injury and this is what a person of sound mind should do or perhaps the win doesn't mean as much as their health and you can't argue with that. Perhaps we have been spoilt with the bravery of fighters like Ward, Gatti, Urkal and Forrest (and I'm not a fan of Forrest either, can't stand his style!). I think hunger is the difference!

Should he choose to continue to fight, I can only hope that Kostya Tszyu's next opponent be more hungry than the likes of Jesse James Leija and Sharmba Mitchell. Reading from Sydney's Daily Telegraph, Jay Larkin of SHOWTIME stated he is interested in matching Tszyu against Gatti (Larkin indicated Gatti to be the preferred next opponent for Tszyu) or failing to secure a bout with Arturo, there are possible re matches with Mitchell and Judah. Larkin further stated that if Mitchell or Judah are not on Tszyu's hit list then perhaps the best other two opponents would be either Ricky Hatton or DeMarcus "Chop Chop" Corley. Personally if Tszyu had only three fights left and he fought Gatti, Hatton and Judah (in this order) I would be a very happy man as each of these men are motivated and would fight win an attitude to win and to hell with the consequences, not to survive or get by.

As for Mitchell or "The Little Big Mouth" as I like to call him, he should keep his mouth closed and fight some more top fighters to earn another shot at the undisputed champ. As for Corley, I can't comment much, reports form his last bout against Bailey were not too flattering!

As for Kostya Tszyu, well he didn't give anything away concerning his next opponent or even who he would like to fight. He may even surprise everyone and retire. I hope this is not the case as it would be a shame for him to go out on a fight like this. I personally would rather see Tszyu give up the WBC belt than fight his mandatory against Gianluca Branco. Tszyu does not need to be fighting unknown fighters at this point in his career. If the WBC does strip Tszyu it might work out for the better as Branco would more than likely have to face Ricky Hatton for the vacant title, someone he should have fought to earn his mandatory shot at the undisputed champion! Hopefully common sense will prevail, (although I doubt it), and the WBC will set it up for Branco to face Hatton in an official elimination bout and not strip Tszyu of their belt.

In my opinion we only have two or three Kostya Tszyu fights to look forward to before he retires and that is if we are lucky. From a fan's perspective the opponents I would like to see him face are, in order:

1.) Arturo Gatti - The most deserving challenger of Tszyu in the division. An exciting fighter who will give us the type of bout we all want to see!

2.) Ricky Hatton - Still a bit raw and untested, but he is strong, relentless and will try to win with all of his heart. Another exciting prospective bout for fight fans.

3.) Zab Judah - Some feel he was hard done by in his bout with Tszyu. At the moment, he hasn't really done anything to warrant a rematch. Zab needs a couple more bouts before getting back in the ring with Tszyu, we might even get lucky and see him take out Sharmba Mitchell on the way back to a rematch, I can only hope.

My request to Kostya Tszyu is, if you decide to continue to fight, please fight the best fighters available and forget the meaningless mandatory defenses. Even if you are stripped of a belt or two, no other fighter can claim to be the best until they beat you or you retire. 

 
VISIT DARREN YATES' "CORNER FROM DOWN UNDER"

Brought to you by Saratogamist copyright 2001-2004.