They are both 30-something ex-champions who were on the brink of global stardom and pound-for-pound supremacy.
Offering devoted fan bases and a wealth of talent and guile, each have endured at least one hellacious beating during the past few years.
And now, former three-belt welterweight champion Errol Spence Jnr of Texas and ex-154lbs titlist Tim Tszyu of Australia are on a collision course for a summer fight loaded with intrigue and sentimental feelings.
Can Spence, 35, revert close to the form when he dominated the glamour 147lbs division while coming back for his first bout since getting pummeled by Terence Crawford in July 2023?
Can Tszyu, 31, regain the qualities that allowed him to claim the WBO junior middleweight belt before participating in that horrifically bloody loss to current champion Sebastian Fundora in 2024?
Tsyzu, 26-3 (18 KOs), has lost twice more since then, a multiple-knockdown stoppage loss to former 154lbs champion Bakhram Murtazaliev and then another stoppage defeat at Fundora’s hands last year.
On Tuesday’s episode of ProBoxTV’s “BoxingScene Today,” analysts and former world champions Paulie Malignaggi and Chris Algieri discussed the looming showdown that will be preceded by a Tszyu “tune-up” fight in Australia on the undercard of the late-March IBF welterweight title fight between champion Lewis Crocket and Australia’s Liam Paro.
“I don’t mind [the Tszyu tuneup],” said Malignaggi, who first reported on the show last month that Tszyu-Spence was in the works. “Errol has had a long layoff. You get rusty … I would prefer to see Errol back in the ring [before fighting Tszyu]. You don’t know what [his trainers] are working with.”
Spence was dismantled in the bout for the undisputed title versus Crawford, going down in the second round, twice more in the seventh and then getting stopped in the ninth.
Spence has also spoken of the ill effects of his horrifying 2019 crash of his Porsche, which flipped over multiple times in Dallas and left him sidelined until late 2020.
“Spence is in the twilight of his career and took a bad beating in his last fight,” Algieri said. “He’s coming back because of his name recognition.”
But still…
“It’s a mouth-watering matchup. These two are names,” Malignaggi said. “There was interest [in the matchup] when I was there and a lot of people were talking about it.”
Can the southpaw Spence, with the height and reach advantages, pick apart the descending Tszyu? Or is this the matchup the rugged Australian needs to re-assert his position in boxing’s richest division?
Algieri said after Tszyu won a return-from-Fundora II fight in December, fighting again in March shows he’s attentive to the idea of improvement.
“We need good timing because we need to win,” Algieri said of Team Tszyu’s thinking. “Tim Tszyu is looking to make a real run, not to cash out. I love this fight because of their storied careers.”
Malignaggi agrees Tszyu is positioned to “accomplish more” in victory while Spence’s ambitions may be more limited in a stacked 154lbs crowd that host Jimmy Smith labeled a “shark tank,” which includes champions Fundora, WBO/WBA titlist Xander Zayas, 23, and England’s Josh Kelly along with gifted unbeaten contenders Vergil Ortiz Jnr and Jaron “Boots” Ennis.
“With Errol, he has talent and a name – can he accomplish more?” Malignaggi asked. “Does he really believe he can be the best at 154, or can he keep making the pay days by staying relevant?”
Algieri, who suffered a fifth-round TKO to Spence in 2016, said Spence “is such a question mark. If he wins, he’ll be in the driver’s seat for big fights, which is what he wants. He’s shown here he doesn’t do tuneups.”
Both fighters are likely rooting for former unified welterweight champion Keith Thurman to defeat Fundora March 28 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Spence and Thurman never fought during their peaks as welterweight champions promoted by Premier Boxing Champions. And Tszyu was supposed to fight Thurman in March 2024 before Thurman suffered a biceps injury late in training camp and was replaced by Fundora.
Fundora accidentally viciously cut Tszyu’s head with an elbow early in that fight, and won the WBC and WBO titles on the scorecards that night.
Both Tszyu and his brother, Nikita, are ranked in the top 10 by the IBF, which has Kelly as its champion.
“This is a big fight for these guys to step back up to prominence,” Algieri said.
