Tony Harrison’s brother, who helps him train, wants him to retire from boxing after his ninth round knockout loss to Tim Tszyu last Saturday night at the Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney, Australia.
Tony’s brother says that the 32-year-old Harrison’s body just isn’t responding to the hard training that he’s doing for him to win, and he’s rather that he hang up his gloves to avoid hurting his legacy.
The former WBC junior middleweight champion Harrison (29-4-1, 21 KOs) took some vicious punishment from Tszyu (22-0, 16 KOs) in the ninth round after getting hurt by a hard punch.
Tszyu teed off against the dazed Harrison, hitting him with 23 unanswered blows before he sank to the canvas. When Harrison got back to his feet, the referee wisely stepped in to halt the contest.
The referee was slow in stopping the fight and probably should have stepped in to wave off the fight long before Harrison went down because he was in dire straights, badly hurt, and unable to defend or throw anything back.
Some would argue that Harrison should have clinched Tszyu to try and survive, but he was too far gone to make that move. Even if Harrison had attempted to hold, Tszyu was hitting him with shots that were jarring him, and there was no way he could have reached out to hold under that rain of fire.
“I was in the car with my brother alone, and I had a talk with him. Me personally, I said I don’t want to see him in the ring no more,” said Tony Harrison’s brother to Fighthype. “Simple as his body just don’t respond.
“Boxing is a young man’s sport. My brother’s IQ keeps him in a lot of fights. When I seen my brother get in the ring after good camps and I’ve seen him spar.
“I see him doing 12, 13, 14 & 15 rounds of sparring, and I see him get in the ring, and his body just can’t respond. I see it in sparring too. It’s just hard on him. I don’t need money that bad to continue to let my brother go into the ring and destroy his legacy that he’s worked so hard to get, which is being a world champion.
“I think, at this point, my brother is just older. It’s time. It’s what I told him in the car. It’s been a long road, and I think at a certain point when you lose, it’s hard on both of us. When you’re away from your family six, eight weeks at a time, sparring, running and punching, it’s time.
“I don’t want my brother getting in there with a situation where his pride is getting hurt more than anything, and he’s working hard. I just think that with the last few fights, I’ve tried to give him one last push with him. I think mentally he was there, but physically father time is undefeated.
“I’m just telling y’all like I told him. Hopefully, my brother takes his time and comes up with a decision. If it was up to me, I told him I don’t want to see him in the ring no more. He’s achieved things at the highest level.
“It’s been an honor, but when it’s time, it’s time. My brother had a great run, he’s a great fighter. Not being active in the ring hurts too. Fighting once a year is not going to get it done. I hope my brother doesn’t get back in the ring.
“It’s not that he’s not good enough. His body doesn’t want to go through the things that he needs to got through to be a world champion. It’s not his fault. It’s just time,” said Harrison’s brother.
