Tim Tszyu defeated Carlos Ocampo in a little over a minute

Tim Tszyu, the son of the legendary Russian boxer Konstantin Tszyu and the new superstar of modern professional boxing, scored perhaps the most striking victory of his professional career. Defending the interim World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight title (up to 69.9 kg), representing Australia Tszyu Jr. quickly, in a little over a minute, and effectively knocked out the strong Mexican Carlos Ocampo. This success brought Tszyu even closer to the fight for the title of absolute world champion with the American Jermell Charlo.

For Tim Tszyu, the victory in the Australian Gold Coast fight was the 23rd in a row in his professional career. But a couple of circumstances, of course, makes her stand out from all the others.

The first is the trouble that happened during the preparation for the fight. In May, Tszyu ended up in the hospital with a huge laceration on his right arm, caused by a dog bite. The injury required surgery, and there was no question of any full-fledged training for several days after it.

All people well versed in boxing were terribly surprised to hear from Tszyu that he did not intend to at least try to reschedule the next performance to a later date. In fact, in such situations, boxers cancel them without hesitation, so as not to risk it.

The second circumstance is the style in which the victory was won. Tim Tszyu already had three wins in the starting round on his track record. But still, so quickly – in 1 minute and 17 seconds – he has not yet managed to get them. Moreover, if earlier in the sprint mode Tszyu smashed, whatever one may say, opponents who did not pose a truly serious threat, then here he had to deal with an experienced boxer who once owned a championship belt and, in principle, had, like most Mexicans, a reputation as a fighter terribly patient and persistent: you can’t take this from a swoop. Tszyu took it that way.

At the same time, it cannot be said that the catastrophe that happened to Carlos Ocampo was the result of some kind of his fatal mistake or a happy insight that visited his opponent for a moment. On the contrary, the outcome, despite the exceptional brevity of the performance, seemed one hundred percent logical, one hundred percent consistent with the overall picture.

Tim Tszyu, of course, is always compared with his great father – the main, perhaps, the legend of Russian boxing Konstantin Tszyu, who in the 1990s was the absolute world champion in the category up to 63.5 kg. So, on Sunday, such comparisons have acquired undeniable relevance.

The set of qualities of Tszyu Sr. was gorgeous. But he admired first of all the fact that he constantly kept the enemy at gunpoint. His boxing was completely devoid of meaningless pauses.

Tszyu Jr. in a fight with Ocampo showed the same toughness and determination with which his father once destroyed the strongest boxers.

In 77 seconds, he threw a total of two dozen punches, which are called power punches in official statistics. This figure is impressive in itself. But even more impressive is the percentage of power punches from Tszyu that hit the target. There are exactly half of them, ten.

Tim Tszyu managed to knock down Carlos Ocampo twice already. The first time – with a right hook, which put an end to a luxurious combination in terms of timing and density: the Mexican somehow managed to get to his feet. The second is a hook already on the left. After him, Ocampo collapsed on the ropes, and the referee Danrex Tapdasan, it seems, realized that the fight had to be stopped before he approached the challenger and looked into his eyes: the helpless pose in which he was perfectly described his condition.

It was not difficult to predict what Tim Tszyu and his managers would talk about after the fight. Last year, all major boxing organizations sanctioned a match with a special status. It should be played for the title of the absolute world champion, who owns the belts of the World Boxing Council (WBC), the World Boxing Association (WBA), the International Boxing Federation (IBF) and the WBO. They are currently owned by Jermell Charlo. The American enjoys tremendous popularity, and in most of the most authoritative classifications of the strongest boxers in the world, regardless of the weight category, such as The Ring classification, he is in the top ten.

Tim Tszyu quite officially won the right to meet with him, and his confrontation with Charlo, first scheduled for the end of January, was doomed to cause a huge stir. However, with him does not grow together. The January fight between the American and the Australian was canceled after the first reported a severe hand injury he received during sparring. Tim Tszyu instead had to fight with another American fighter – Tony Harrison – just for the title of interim WBO champion. Tszyu won the fight via knockout in the ninth round.

Then Charlo said that the recovery after the fracture of two bones of the hand was being delayed, and Tszyu did not want to wait and agreed to a duel with Ocampo, which only strengthened his reputation. After him, the Australian confirmed that, no matter how bright his Sunday fight was, he would be “satisfied” only by collecting all four titles. And his promoter George Rose recalled that the WBO had already set a deadline for the duel with Charlo – September 30. And he also noticed that, in his opinion, there was no need to postpone the match.

Alexey Dospekhov