This might just be the year of Tim Tszyu. The unbeaten WBO interim junior middleweight champion Tim Tszyu (23-0, 17 KOs) stopped Carlos Ocampo (34-3, 22 KOs) needing just 77 seconds to stop Ocampo on Sunday at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre in Broadbeach, Queensland, Australia. Tszyu stopped Ocampo faster than Erorl Spence Jr did, who stopped Ocampo in 3:00 minutes in their fight, five years ago, in June of 2018.
The bout was short and sweet. Tszyu hurt Ocampo, sent him to the canvas, and then recorded a highlight-reel knockout. It is quite clear that with two major knockouts, Tszyu is now a frontrunner for Boxer of the Year with these types of performances he is continuing to record in 2023. After the fight, Tszyu called for the undisputed junior middleweight world champion, Jermell Charlo, who he was supposed to fight in January of this year, before an injury postponed that bout.
“I think Errol did it in what, 2½ minutes, just near the three-minute mark,” Tim Tszyu said. “I think I got him out of there a bit earlier, so I beat you, Errol. I beat you to it.”
As for what is next, Tszyu let be known he wants to fight Jermell Charlo next.
"I’ve got this interim belt, but I’m not satisfied," said Tszyu. "I want all four, and it’s not just the belts. I literally just want the name Charlo on my resume.”
In the co-main event as part of the Showtime telecast, we saw an IBF junior featherweight title eliminator as Australia's own Sam Goodman (15-0, 7 KOs) took a twelve-round split decision over Ra’eese Aleem (20-1, 12 KOs), who now trains in Las Vegas, Nevada. The bout was everything you could have wanted from a title eliminator with both fighters showing traits of becoming a future world title contender or even champion. In the end, it was the 24-year-old, Goodman, who edged the fight with the scores of (117-111 and 116-112 with one judge giving Aleem the fight 116-112.
With the win Goodman is now the mandatory opponent for Marlon Tapales, who holds the WBA and IBF super bantamweight world titles.
