Tony Harrison has never been shy to speak his mind.
The 32-year-old from Detroit has fought in 33 professional bouts for a 29-3-1 record, winning 21 by knockout and has four times competed for versions of the light middleweight titles.
It is he who stands in Tim Tszyu's way of winning his first world-level belt, the WBO interim super welterweight title.
When the two men meet on Sunday in the Sydney SuperDome at Homebush, they enter the ring as the number three and number four-ranked super welterweights by The Ring magazine and the independent Transnational Boxing Rankings Board.
Tszyu had been due to fight Jermell Charlo for the undisputed straps at the 70kg weight limit but that fight was postponed when the American broke his hand in sparing.
That left Tszyu hunting for an opponent, not willing to be out of the ring for what would turn into more than a year by the time the Charlo fight could be rearranged.
He chose one of the most dangerous, seasoned fighters in the division, a choice that fighter labelled as "stupid" — repeatedly — when speaking to Fox Sports soon after the fight was confirmed.
"This is the stupidest decision you can make as management, as promotion," Harrison said.
"[If] I'm next up to fight for all the belts … I wouldn't have fought nobody, to be honest. I would've waited it out.
"For Tim to take on the only fighter to beat the person he wants to go take the four belts from, the most dangerous person in the division … I'm patting them on the back because that was stupid. Very stupid.
"Courageous in a sense of boxing. Stupid in a sense of business."
Harrison, whose three defeats have all come by TKO and twice when fighting for a world title, spoke at length about Tszyu's weaknesses, belittling Tszyu's fighting CV and warning that his "courageous" approach to fighting was too risky against the best in the division.
And for all the bluster you'd expect from a fighter doing his job to sell pay-per-view subscriptions, it's hard to argue that he doesn't have a point on some of his comments.
Defence needs work
Tszyu has always said he's not afraid to take a shot to land a shot.
Against Terrell Gausha last time out, he ended up on his backside as a result — his first knockdown.
"He kept landing shots and I just thought, f*** it, I'm gunna keep coming forward and keep fighting," Tszyu said in the ring after that unanimous points decision victory.
"I put the pressure on, I didn't take one step backwards."
That's all well and good, and paid off last year, but as Jeff Horn pointed out after that contest, defence is an area where Tszyu simply has to be better moving forward.
Risk is part of boxing — in no other sport is the price of getting that balance wrong higher than in the ring.
And Tszyu recognises this, as he told the Telegraph when he took the high-risk Harrison fight.
"Every fight you take is all on the line, you're one punch away from going back to the very bottom," Tszyu said.
"It's all on the line and a gamble, but this is what I do. This is boxing, it's part of my career and I'm a fighter first.
"He was the next-best available option. I'm at that stage of my career that I really don't care who is in front of me. I'm ready to take them all out."
One size fits all?
Harrison will be the biggest man in terms of height (185cm) that he has fought since South Australian Mark Dalby in his second career bout back in 2017 at Adelaide Oval.
Harrison's reach is well in excess of what Tszyu has encountered before, at a whopping 194cm as per BoxRec.
Tszyu's dimensions are more modest at 174cm tall and 183cm reach.
This is not going to be unusual for Tszyu as he moves up in class — and that's not to say he was simply beating up on smaller men in his career up until now. Only three of his last seven opponents have been shorter and one of those (Steve Spark) jumped up two weight divisions at late notice for a payday.
But now Tszyu is fighting bigger men who can take his powerful body shots and respond in kind.
Tszyu will have been out of the ring for almost exactly a year by the time he starts his ring walk in Sydney, and will be fighting for just the fifth time since the start of 2021.
Harrison, though, has been even less active than that, fighting just twice in that same time period. His last contest was a unanimous points win over Sergio Garcia in Las Vegas in April last year.
His most recent win before that, though, came in December 2018 over Charlo, who avenged that points loss with an 11th-round knockout victory the following year.
When is Tim Tszyu vs Tony Harrison?
Coverage of the main event will start at 12:00pm AEDT on Sunday in Sydney.
How can I watch?
You'll need to jump on and order the event from Main Event on Fox Sports or Kayo. The fight will cost $59.95 to order.
Who is on the undercard?
The undercard is stacked with talented Australian fighters, including Tim's unbeaten brother, Nikita Tszyu.
It's the first time that the two brothers will have fought on the same card in their professional careers.
- Tim Tszyu vs Tony Harrison
- Sam Goodman vs TJ Doheny
- Ben Mahoney vs Koen Mazoudier
- Paulo Aokuso vs Yunieski Gonzales
- Issac Hardman vs Rohan Murdock
- Nikita Tszyu vs Bo Belbin
- Shanell Dargan vs Courtney Martin
