Tim Tszyu, Janibek Alimkhanuly shine in wins; what’s next for both champions?

Junior middleweight champion Tim Tszyu and middleweight champion Janibek Alimkhanuly put in impressive performances this weekend.

Tszyu (24-0, 17 KO) defeated Brian Mendoza by unanimous decision to retain his WBO junior middleweight title in Gold Coast, Australia. The fight was close for the first six rounds, but then Tszyu took over and dominated Mendoza the rest of the way to set up a potential unification bout with Jermell Charlo for all four 154-pound belts.

Tszyu was scheduled to face Charlo in January, but a month before the fight, Charlo suffered a hand injury that forced the fight to be postponed. Once healed, Charlo moved up two divisions to face undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez and lost a one-sided decision. The WBO stripped Charlo of his junior middleweight belt and elevated Tszyu, then interim champion, to full champion.

Charlo (35-2-1, 19 KOs) could revisit a fight with Tszyu to regain the belt. He still holds the WBC, IBF and WBA junior middleweight belts.

In Texas, Alimkhanuly defeated Vincenzo Gualtieri by sixth-round TKO to unify the WBO and IBF middleweight titles. The win was impressive, but it appears to be the classic high-risk, low-reward gamble for fellow division champions Jermall Charlo and Erislandy Lara. If these unification fights are not an option for his next fight, what would be a good fight for Alimkhanuly?

Mike Coppinger and Ben Baby have some answers for Tszyu and Alimkhanuly.

Tim Tszyu is legit and ready to take on Jermell Charlo

Tszyu crushed Mendoza for 12 punishing rounds, then asked, “Charlo, where are you, buddy?”

Tszyu made it clear who he wanted to face next, the man he was supposed to face in January for the undisputed junior middleweight championship.

And Tszyu made it clear on Sunday, if it wasn’t already obvious, that he’s more than ready for a fighter like Charlo.

While Charlo recovered, Tszyu put together a breakthrough campaign with a TKO victory over Tony Harrison, a first-round thrashing of Carlos Ocampo and now a brutal thrashing of Mendoza.

Tszyu packs some serious punch on his shots, the kind of punches that resonate when they connect. His punches just look damaging – and they were. Mendoza’s face was torn under stress with cuts under his right eye and over his left eye.

Tszyu didn’t strike much, but he varied his attack with precision and did his best with a sharp right hand. Tszyu’s punches were compact and he never seemed out of breath, even at the final bell after five rounds of sustained, uninterrupted pressure.

Tszyu has star qualities. He never backs down, is an attraction in Australia and talks a big game.

“In his delusional head, he’ll probably think he’s going to beat me,” Tszyu said of Charlo. “Come and get it. Of course [Charlo will fight me]. He fought Canelo, the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. He’s the best 154 but let’s show you who the king of the division really is.”

And then, of course, there’s his last name: Tszyu. His father is Hall of Fame boxer Kostya Tszyu, the best 140-pounder of his era. Tszyu was known for his power and entertaining style, and Tim Tszyu is quickly earning that reputation.

He’s proven to be a class above any opponent he’s faced, but now he must fight the kind of truly elite dance partner who can take Tszyu to the next level.

Tszyu’s only fight is Charlo, a fight he deserved and has a good chance of winning.

Alimkhanuly wins, unifies two titles, but can he win the other champions?

Janibek Alimkhanuly finds himself in one of the most unusual situations in boxing.

After a dominant victory over Vincenzo Gualtieri, the undefeated Kazakh fighter now holds the IBF and WBO middleweight titles and is a unified champion. But that doesn’t mean another unification fight against fellow champions Erislandy Lara or Jermall Charlo should be next.

For what? Because given what Alimkhanuly has done in recent fights, he represents far too much risk for Lara or Charlo without any significant financial reward. A quick scan of the Fort Bend epicenter in Rosenberg, Texas, on Saturday found plenty of empty seats for a fight between two titleholders in one of boxing’s most storied divisions.

It must be worth it for Lara and Charlo to face a younger, more active fighter with a lot of power. When Gennadiy Golovkin fought his way into the middleweight division, he created buzz with sensational stoppages and victories against many notable names before taking his chance against boxing’s greatest – Canelo Alvarez. In 2017, in the first of three fights and one of the sport’s best rivalries of the last 20 years, Golovkin showed why he warranted a walking payday fight in Alvarez.

Alimkhanuly is not here yet. It will take more than a few belts to become a significant financial asset. The best option might be a fight against Chris Eubank Jr., a British contender who is doing well at the box office in the UK. These are the type of fights that could get people excited about Alimkhanuly and force the best fighters into the ring to face him.

For Eubank, the risk is worth it. This gives him a chance at a title, something he hasn’t had since losing to George Groves in 2018 in a fight for the WBO super middleweight belt.