Tim Tszyu Scores Impressive Decision Win Over Mendoza

It wasn’t easy due to a tough American challenger, but Australian star and WBO junior middleweight world champ Tim Tszyu pounded out a 12 round unanimous decision over Brian Mendoza Sunday afternoon in Gold Coast, Australia. The newly elevated world champion used a hard right hand as his best weapon throughout the fight to wear down and overwhelm Mendoza, as the fight wore on, garnering the 12 round victory.

The fight, which capped the No Limit Boxing pay-per-view from down under that was also broadcast on Showtime in the United States, saw the official judges render scores of 116-112, 117-111 and 116-111.

Big Fight Weekend had the card 117-111 (9-3) for the champion, as well.

It took Tszyu time to get going

Mendoza, who got the title opportunity due to his stunning knockout upset of Sebastian Fundora back in April, was tough and took a lot of serious big punches in the second half of the fight without ever going down. Tszyu, who started slowly in the first couple of rounds, eventually began to find the range with the straight right and right uppercuts.

Mendoza’s right eye began to swell from the midway point of the fight and eventually, Tszyu started to take advantage with solid left jabs and left hooks. Tszyu,  24-0, 17 KOs and the son of former Hall of Famer Kosta Tszyu, was the more aggressive and busier fighter, especially in the final six rounds. He very nearly scored a knockdown and had the fight perhaps on the verge of being stopped with a barrage of rights and lefts that trapped Mendoza in the corner for the final minute of the 10th round.

With American referee Mark Nelson looking on carefully Tszyu hammered Mendoza, now 22-3, two or three times with solid rights, but the toughness of the American shown through, as he not only stayed upright but actually fired some punches back.

While there was not tremendous volume of punches from either man, Tszyu held an impressive 98-71 advantage in power punches according to Showtime’s “Sho Stats.”

“Man, he’s tough,” Tszyu said post fight in the ring about Mendoza. “He’s crafty. He’s slick. He’s got power. He’s world class for a reason. He’s just behind me.” When asked about his gameplan? Tszyu responded, “Have some fun in there and perform for everyone here. Simple man.”

The result seemed to be a foregone conclusion as Mendoza simply did not have a big enough punch to pull any kind of a dramatic knockout in the final couple of frames. Tszyu continued to still land the big right hand in the championship rounds and coasted to the easy win. The American should be credited, as many fighters would have at least gone down, if not been stopped by Tszyu, in the late rounds.

Jermell Charlo next for Tszyu?

Tszyu was making the first official world title defense of the belt he was awarded, when Jermell Charlo was stripped by the WBO for failure to fight him.

The two had intended to fight back in January before Charlo broke his hand and then, while Charlo sat out mending, Tszyu instead beat former 154 lb World Champ Tony Harrison by TKO in Australia in March for the WBO “interim” title. He followed that up with a one-round destruction of Carlos Ocampo this past Summer. Next, Charlo healed, but chose to challenge future Hall of Famer Canelo Alvarez for the undisputed super middleweight title losing a lopsided 12 round decision on September 30th.

That’s when the WBO had seen enough and awarded their belt to Tszyu for Saturday’s title defense.

The belief is that Tszyu and Charlo could fight as soon as the Spring of next year, but that will depend on whether the Texan Charlo, who still currently has the WBC/WBA and IBF titles, wants to fight someone else moving back down to 154 lb. before fighting Tszyu?

Clearly, the Australian star is the biggest threat in the division, as he is certainly been more active and more impressive than any other top-level junior middleweight over the last couple of years