How to watch Sebastian Fundora vs Tim Tszyu II, Manny Pacquiao vs Mario Barrios
Tszyu will be fighting for Fundora's WBC super welterweight title.
WBC super welterweight champion
Age: 27
Record: 22-1-1 (14 KOs)
Height: 198cm
Reach: 203cm
Weight: 69.22kg
Age: 30
Record: 25-2 (18 KOs)
Height: 175cm
Reach: 179cm
Weight: 69.49kg
The Australian had previously held the WBO super welterweight title, which he lost to Fundora by split decision in March last year at the T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas.
A horror gash in his forehead, opened by a stray elbow from the man known as the Towering Inferno due to his incredible 197cm height, cost Tszyu dearly.
He then suffered a shocking battering at the hands of Bakhram Murtazaliev in Orlando last October when looking to immediately bounce back and win the IBF super welterweight crown.
That fight ended inside three rounds, Tszyu a shadow of the fighter who had worked his way so painstakingly up to world title challenge in the first place.
He recaptured some of his old aura with a fourth-round TKO win against Joey Spencer in Newcastle in April, but is now throwing himself straight back in against the man who delivered him such a horrendous setback.
A giant southpaw (left-hander) from Florida, the 27-year-old has a professional record of 22-1-1 and is the current WBC super welterweight champion.
The American took on Tszyu in March 2024 on just 11 days' notice after Tszyu's original opponent, Keith Thurman, pulled out with a late injury.
Fundora made the most of his late call-up, becoming the unified WBO and WBC super welterweight champion by split decision.
The win, in no small way, came after Tszyu caused a huge gash to open up on Tszyu's head after a clash with Fundora's elbow in the second round.
The resulting, blood-soaked bout showed off Tszyu's heart, but cost him his belt.
Fundora defended the unified championship against Chordale Booker, whom he beat by fourth-round stoppage in March.
However, he was then stripped of the WBO title he won from Tszyu for refusing to face mandatory challenger Xander Zayas next.
Instead, he opted to take on Tszyu again in a rematch.
The only blemishes on his record are a split decision draw against Jamontay Clark in 2019, before he received his first defeat against Brian Mendoza in a seventh-round KO in California in 2023.
Mendoza then went on to lose to Tszyu on the Gold Coast later that year by unanimous decision.
When Tszyu was unceremoniously dispatched by Murtazaliev, it was easy to fear the worst.
The Soul Taker looked as though his own soul had been ripped from him as the clinical Russian comprehensively battered him to the canvas no fewer than four times.
His whole world had been flipped upside down.
Is this fight too soon for Tszyu?
The mental scars from the devastating, sickening cut were in evidence against Murtazaliev, but were nowhere to be seen against Spencer back on home soil earlier this year.
The enormous reach advantage Fundora enjoys, some 24cm, is enough to allow the giant American to simply use his jab and stay out of range.
He will be the one to dictate, something that so often fits into Tszyu's game plan.
However, training with another towering American, 190cm Mykal Fox, has given Tszyu new ammunition with which to throw.
"This next fight with Sebastian Fundora, it will be a different fight to the first one," Tszyu told Fox Sports this week.
"I can't wait to get in the ring so I can punish [him], I've got a lot to prove.
"I wouldn't say there's bad blood, but I wanna take his head off.
"It's going to be a firefight, and I love firefights. They suit me."
That's right, Filipino legend Manny Pacquiao (62-8-2) is stepping back into the ring after a four-year absence.
He is stepping straight back into the deep end, too, meeting WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios (29-2-1).
His last fight was a unanimous points defeat to Yordenis Ugás in 2021.
British trainer Dave Coldwell engaged in a solid exchange on social media with WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman.
Coldwell said the move to sanction the fight was "disgraceful" and that Pacquiao, who has not won a fight since 2019, had jumped the queue for a world title shot.
Sulaiman, for his part, hit back, saying that Pacquiao had passed all medical checks and the WBC, as per its regulations, as a "Champion Emeritus" was able to request an immediate title shot.
Pacquiao has never won the WBC strap at welterweight, but has held that version of the flyweight, super featherweight, lightweight, and super welterweight titles.
He has been the WBO welterweight champion on three separate occasions, though, and has also held the WBA (Super) welterweight title.
The undercard gets underway at 7am AEST, but the main card will start at 10am (AEST) on Sunday.
Tszyu vs Fundora II is the penultimate fight on the main card, so it will likely take place close to 12pm (AEST), but that is subject to significant change based on the duration of the previous contests.
If you want to watch it, you'll have to tune into Main Event, the Fox Sports pay-per-view channel.
You can access it via Kayo Sport, too, but it will cost you.
The event is being sold at $69.95.
Of course, you can follow the entire event on the ABC Sport live blog, which will get underway just before 10am on Sunday.
Here's how the full fight card stands up.
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News.com.au
15 minutes ago
- News.com.au
‘F***ed up': Nikita Tszyu claps back at ‘ignorant' pundits, reveals truth about Fundora stoppage
Nikita Tszyu has hit out at 'ignorant' fans and a 'f***ed up' boxing world while slamming commentary around his older brother Tim 'quitting' on his stool against Sebastian Fundora. Meanwhile, longtime Tszyu family rival Michael Zerafa – who fights on the same August pay-per-view card as Nikita – claims 'The Butcher' is actually a better fighter than his older brother. Nikita returns to action for the first time in a year against German-based Macedonian Lulzim Ismaili (12-0) on August 20 at the ICC Theatre in Sydney, and was ringside as Tim was beaten by a much-improved Fundora at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. After a week of speculation, Nikita says it was trainer and uncle, Igor Goloubev, who stopped the fight after the seventh round. 'Tim just didn't have anything left in him and the corner stopped it,' Nikita told Code Sports. 'They visually saw that he was out, and that he no longer had the strength. 'Igor stopped it. My uncle stopped it. I'm 99% sure of that.' That hasn't stopped a wave of online criticism being aimed at Tim, with many fans and pundits saying he quit on his stool, despite saying just days earlier that he was willing to die in the ring. 'I've been seeing a lot of 'quit, quit, quit,' but it wasn't the case,' Nikita said. 'It was done. It was a losing battle. 'It's just a bit of ignorance and it's a shame that it happens. It's a shame that we're so flawed as a society that everyone has to play the blame game. 'There's no dishonour in that fight. 'Tim fought his ass off, did everything he could and wasn't able to finish the job. He got beat. There's no dishonour in that. 'Why's everyone slamming him? It's kind've fucked up. 'Do you expect him to die on his feet? The boxing world is messed up.' Hall of Famer Jeff Fenech was one of many to slam Tim's corner in the days after the fight, and urged the Sydneysider to make changes to his team. Nikita brushed off those criticisms and will use the same personnel, including Goloubev, cutman Mark Gambin and trainer Dave Barker, on August 20. 'I'll always use them,' he said. 'I feel most comfortable with them, and if there's anyone I'd want to lose with, it's them. 'My mentality is just different than most boxers. I don't think there's dishonour in losing. You go into a fight, you prepare your best. 'If you don't prepare, that's the most dishonourable thing you can do. We always come in as prepared as possible. 'If we win, we win. If we lose we lose, but we always fight our ass off. 'The UFC is the perfect example of how it should be. People fight, they win, they lose, everyone gets praised. 'In boxing, everyone just gets slammed. It's a weird dynamic.' Nikita has been out of action since his August 2024 Fight of the Year win over Koen Mazoudier. Since then, 'The Butcher' has battled with a hand injury, got married and had his first child, a daughter named Curiosity. Lulzim will be his first international opponent, and there are plans for Nikita to face Zerafa later this year. He wouldn't talk about a potential fight with Zerafa, who fights American Mikey Dahlman (18-1) in the co-main event on August 20, while 'The Pretty Boy' says he's now focused on landing a big-money fight with the older Tszyu brother. He even claims Nikita is better than Tim. 'The grudge match isn't with Nikita, it's with me and Tim,' Zerafa said of his years-long rivalry with Tim. 'Nikita's still young in his career, I'm ranked higher than him, and now, higher than Tim. 'He's crafty and strong, and I actually think he's a better fighter than Tim. 'He's still raw, he's still fresh in the sport, but he's doing great things. He's a weird personality – he's the weird guy, I'm the bad guy. 'But it's one fight at a time. That's Nikita's thing, so keep doing it.' The August 20 undercard also sees the return of Sydneysider Brock Jarvis against Sam Beck (7-0) for his first bout since his defeat to Keith Thurman in March. Rising Sydney superstar Ahmad Reda is on the hunt for a new opponent after Brisbane power puncher Billy Polkinghorn was forced out through injury. Further down the card, heavyweight slugger Brandon Grach is in a five-rounder, while Jasmine Parr and Isaias Sette will also feature.
Sydney Morning Herald
an hour ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Spare us the whinging, England. The only thing embarrassing about Old Trafford was your tantrum
Increasingly, the balance of world opinion favours an Indian win in the final game. Why? Because the posturing that accompanied England's Bazball revolution has got to the point that even some among their countrymen are beginning to tire of it all. There is also the fact that the self-appointed great entertainers, all about saving Test cricket and making the game more enjoyable, are now increasingly inclined towards the kind of flinty attitudes held by teams rather more concerned with winning. The contradictions are piling up. Steve Smith, for one, picked this up during the Manchester Test. 'They have started to play a little bit differently in the last couple of weeks in terms of playing the situation, as opposed to going out and trying to be the entertainers that they said they wanted to be,' Smith told the BBC's Test Match Special. 'They are actually trying to win the games now which is perhaps different to what was said in their comments previously.' Loading Back in 2023, England's posturing included barbs about having effectively won a game at Edgbaston that they actually lost, then a flurry of indignation at Jonny Baristow's legitimate stumping by Alex Carey at Lord's. This was closely followed by dog whistling to ensure that Australia's players were given hell for the rest of the trip - the unpleasantness escalating even to death threats. But of course, England did not win the series nor regain the Ashes. Similarly, they are yet to win a series against India under Stokes and Brendon McCullum. And their white ball team has slipped a long way from the heights of the 2019 World Cup, and got to the point last year that McCullum was asked to take over the all-format program. So this year, with India and the Ashes both looming large, there has been a rhetorical shift towards more pragmatic cricket, but also more unpleasant behaviour on the field, in search of tactical advantage. Open discussion of team meetings where tactical sledging was discussed certainly raised the eyebrows of Australian players, seven years after their own descent into the infamous Cape Town Test and all the introspection that followed. Loading Members of that 2018 team are well aware that the path of sledging and unsavoury behaviour is a slippery one, leading to ever-greater animosity. They were amused to hear Stokes mimic their old phrase after a spiteful lord's Test match: 'At not one stage did we go over the line.' The Australians also recall that if the sledging didn't work, it would result in a backlash of commensurate fury from the likes of AB de Villiers or, some years earlier, Brian Lara. McCullum has even called in Gilbert Enoka, his old friend from the New Zealand cricket team and a longtime advisor to the All Blacks, to help shape the culture and identity of England's Ashes challengers. Enoka still has some work to do. Faced with an Indian side that did not want to dance to their tune, England looked churlish, bad-tempered and even a little bit brittle: happy and jovial when things go their way, but sulky and childish when they don't.
The Age
an hour ago
- The Age
Spare us the whinging, England. The only thing embarrassing about Old Trafford was your tantrum
Increasingly, the balance of world opinion favours an Indian win in the final game. Why? Because the posturing that accompanied England's Bazball revolution has got to the point that even some among their countrymen are beginning to tire of it all. There is also the fact that the self-appointed great entertainers, all about saving Test cricket and making the game more enjoyable, are now increasingly inclined towards the kind of flinty attitudes held by teams rather more concerned with winning. The contradictions are piling up. Steve Smith, for one, picked this up during the Manchester Test. 'They have started to play a little bit differently in the last couple of weeks in terms of playing the situation, as opposed to going out and trying to be the entertainers that they said they wanted to be,' Smith told the BBC's Test Match Special. 'They are actually trying to win the games now which is perhaps different to what was said in their comments previously.' Loading Back in 2023, England's posturing included barbs about having effectively won a game at Edgbaston that they actually lost, then a flurry of indignation at Jonny Baristow's legitimate stumping by Alex Carey at Lord's. This was closely followed by dog whistling to ensure that Australia's players were given hell for the rest of the trip - the unpleasantness escalating even to death threats. But of course, England did not win the series nor regain the Ashes. Similarly, they are yet to win a series against India under Stokes and Brendon McCullum. And their white ball team has slipped a long way from the heights of the 2019 World Cup, and got to the point last year that McCullum was asked to take over the all-format program. So this year, with India and the Ashes both looming large, there has been a rhetorical shift towards more pragmatic cricket, but also more unpleasant behaviour on the field, in search of tactical advantage. Open discussion of team meetings where tactical sledging was discussed certainly raised the eyebrows of Australian players, seven years after their own descent into the infamous Cape Town Test and all the introspection that followed. Loading Members of that 2018 team are well aware that the path of sledging and unsavoury behaviour is a slippery one, leading to ever-greater animosity. They were amused to hear Stokes mimic their old phrase after a spiteful lord's Test match: 'At not one stage did we go over the line.' The Australians also recall that if the sledging didn't work, it would result in a backlash of commensurate fury from the likes of AB de Villiers or, some years earlier, Brian Lara. McCullum has even called in Gilbert Enoka, his old friend from the New Zealand cricket team and a longtime advisor to the All Blacks, to help shape the culture and identity of England's Ashes challengers. Enoka still has some work to do. Faced with an Indian side that did not want to dance to their tune, England looked churlish, bad-tempered and even a little bit brittle: happy and jovial when things go their way, but sulky and childish when they don't.
