Tim Tszyu (24-0, 17 KOs) held onto his WBO junior middleweight title on Saturday night, beating Brian Mendoza (22-3, 16 KOs) by a twelve-round unanimous decision in an entertaining contest throughout.
What a chin on Tszyu & Mendoza, as both guys took shots that would have knocked out anyone in the 154-lb division. In the twelfth round, Mendoza hit Tszyu with two right hands that should have put him to sleep, but he took them. Yeah, Tszyu backed off like he’d been shot with a bazooka, but he still took them.
Tszyu was calm the entire fight, even when he was hurt by a body shot from Mendoza in the eleventh round that had him wincing in pain. He took the shot, quickly brushed it off, and went on the attack for some payback.
Mendoza fought bravely, getting royally hammered by Tszyu, but never going down twice despite getting hit with the kind of shots that would have knocked out most fighters.
The scores were surprisingly close, with Tszyu winning 116-111, 116-112, and 117-111.
Mendoza was cut over his left eye in the 11th round, and his right cheek was severely swollen from earlier in the contest. The referee had the ringside doctor examine the cut after the round ended, but he let it continue.
In the final round, Mendoza came out on fire, tagging Tszyu with a left-right combination that froze him in his tracks. Whatever motivation that Tszyu had to try and go for a knockout in the twelfth he lost interest right away after getting hit by the powerful left-right combo from Mendoza.
You can’t blame Tszyu because he was lucky to stay on his feet because it was the same punches that had dropped Sebastian Fundora, and he arguably has a better chin.
This was the perfect going-away present for Tszyu to give his boxing fans tonight at the Coast Convention Centre in Broadbeach because it was thoroughly entertaining with his performance.
Immediately after the fight, Tszyu called out Jermell Charlo, saying he wanted him next. Heck, Tszyu might as well have called out Canelo Alvarez because he has about as much chance of getting him in the ring as he does Jermell. The reason is simple.
Jermell isn’t going to risk all that dough he can get fighting Terence Crawford by taking on Tszyu. If Jermell was confident of beating Tszyu, he’d take the fight in a second, but he’s not.
Jermell’s self-confidence is obviously at an all-time low after the way he was schooled by Canelo last month on September 30th. So instead of taking the risky fight against Tszyu, Jermell is going to campaign like a politician to try and get Crawford to agree to fight him because the payday would be enormous fighting him.
