Kostya Tszyu: the night in Vegas he became undisputed, from a Sydney gym | Ultimate Boxing Reunion

Why fans still care

KOSTYA TSZYU came to Australia as a world amateur champion and left the ring as one of the great light welterweights. On 3 November 2001 he stopped Zab Judah in two rounds and held the WBC, WBA and IBF belts at once, the first undisputed champion at 140 pounds since 1967.

He did it from Sydney, with a trainer he never signed a contract with. Johnny Lewis, who worked his corner from the first fight to the last, called him the “greatest thinking fighter I have ever seen.”

If you grew up in Australia arguing about the best fighter in the country, Tszyu is the name a lot of people argued for.

Early life

He was born Konstantin Tszyu in Serov, near the Ural Mountains, on 19 September 1969. The Sport Australia Hall of Fame says his father took him to a boxing gym as an outlet for a hyperactive boy. He started at about nine.

As an amateur he won the European junior featherweight title in 1986 and was runner up at the World Juniors in Havana in 1987. At the 1988 Seoul Olympics he boxed for the USSR and reached the third round, where he lost to Andreas Zülow of East Germany, the eventual gold medallist. He beat Zülow in a later rematch.

The move to Australia

In 1991 the world amateur championships were held in Sydney. He won the light welterweight title, and that year he moved to Australia.

Johnny Lewis, the Sydney trainer who had already taken Jeff Harding and Jeff Fenech, Who’s Who number 12 to world titles, took him on from the first professional fight on a handshake, with no contract. Tszyu says Lewis encouraged the move and got promoter Bill Mordey and Fenech, Who’s Who number 12 to help persuade him.

His sons were born in Sydney, and both box professionally today. One of them, Tim Tszyu, Who’s Who number 3, stands in this same painting.

Career chapters

1. 1986European junior featherweight champion
2. 1988Boxes for the USSR at the Seoul Olympics
3. 1991World amateur champion in Sydney; moves to Australia
4. 1992Professional debut, 1 March, a first round stoppage
5. 1995Wins the IBF title from Jake Rodríguez in Las Vegas, his 14th fight
6. 1997Loses the IBF title to Vince Phillips, his first defeat
7. 1998Interim WBC title against Diosbelys Hurtado
8. 1999Full WBC title against Miguel Angel González
9. 2000Stops Julio César Chávez in Phoenix
10. 2001WBA title from Sharmba Mitchell; undisputed after stopping Zab Judah
11. 2003Defends against Jesse James Leija in Melbourne
12. 2004Returns after 22 months out and stops Mitchell again
13. 2005Loses to Ricky Hatton in Manchester, his last fight
14. 2011International Boxing Hall of Fame and Sport Australia Hall of Fame

The rise 1992 to 1995

He won his debut on 1 March 1992 in the first round. In his fourth fight he beat the former world champion Juan LaPorte over ten rounds in Sydney.

In January 1994 he won a 10-round decision over Héctor López in Tampa. He said afterwards that it taught him to train much harder.

The first world title 28 January 1995

In his 14th professional fight he met Jake Rodríguez at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and stopped him in round 6 to win the IBF junior welterweight title.

He defended it against Roger Mayweather over 12 rounds in Newcastle in June 1995, then against Hugo Pineda, Corey Johnson and Jan Piet Bergman, who he knocked out in round 6 in September 1996.

Vince Phillips 31 May 1997

At the Etess Arena in Atlantic City, Vince Phillips stopped him in round 10 and took the IBF title. It was his first professional defeat. Trainer James Gogue, writing for PhilBoxing, later wrote that Phillips never backed up and beat him with a big right hand.

He rebuilt how he prepared. He also asked Lewis never to stop one of his fights. Lewis refused to make that promise.

Back to the top 1998 to 2000

On 28 November 1998 he stopped Diosbelys Hurtado in round 5 for the interim WBC title. In August 1999, in Miami, Miguel Angel González’s corner stopped their fight 48 seconds into round 10, and Tszyu had the full WBC title.

On 29 July 2000 he fought Julio César Chávez, then 38, at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, in front of 14,100 people by the promoters’ count. A right hand in round 6 put Chávez down, only the second knockdown of his career, and referee Bobby Ferrara stopped it. Tszyu’s verdict: “The punch was not hard. It was just the timing.”

Undisputed 2001

On 3 February 2001 he took the WBA title from Sharmba Mitchell, who retired after round 7. That left one belt, the IBF, held by Zab Judah.

Many pundits made Judah the favourite. At the weigh-in Tszyu asked him about his newborn daughter, which he later described as a mental tactic. In round 1 a Judah left uppercut sent him into the ropes, and Judah won the round. In round 2 Tszyu stalked him, and with four seconds left a right hand put Judah down. He got up, wobbled and fell again, and referee Jay Nady stopped it.

Judah threw a stool at Nady. Tszyu was the undisputed champion at 140 pounds, the first since 1967. Years later, in 2019, Judah told Boxing News he liked him after meeting him in Moscow.

Champion at home 2002 to 2003

He kept all three belts against Ben Tackie over 12 rounds in May 2002. On 19 January 2003 he defended them at Telstra Dome in Melbourne, and Jesse James Leija retired after round 6.

The comeback 2004

An Achilles injury and a ruptured shoulder tendon kept him out for 22 months, and the inactivity cost him the WBA and WBC titles. He came back on 6 November 2004 against Mitchell at Glendale Arena in Arizona. He put Mitchell down four times in round 2, and referee Raul Caiz stopped it at 2:48 of round 3. He told reporters he was “smarter than I was.”

Ricky Hatton 5 June 2005

His last fight was an IBF defence against Ricky Hatton at the MEN Arena in Manchester, a fight the BBC called the biggest in Britain for more than a decade. It started at 2am local time for American television.

Hatton led on all three cards after 11 rounds, 107 to 102, 106 to 103 and 105 to 104, and Lewis pulled his fighter out before round 12, the very thing Tszyu had once asked him never to do. “I have nothing to be ashamed of,” Tszyu told the BBC, “I lost to the better fighter.”

He has not fought since, though he has never formally retired.

After boxing

In December 2010 he was elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame, and on 12 June 2011 he was inducted in Canastota in the same class as Mike Tyson, Who’s Who number 34. He said the honour was beyond his imagination. That year he also joined the Sport Australia Hall of Fame.

In 2011 he trained the Russian cruiserweight Denis Lebedev for his win over Roy Jones Jr, Who’s Who number 4 (story coming soon). He later moved back to Russia. In October 2024 he surprised Tim, Who’s Who number 3 at a press conference in Orlando, Florida, before Tim’s IBF title challenge against Bakhram Murtazaliev.

In a September 2026 interview for his 57th birthday, the IBA reported that he works with young fighters and still trains every day. “The ring is my home,” he said.

Style, technique and the corner

How he fought

Gogue described a straight up style: an upright posture and a touch jab to set up the right hand. The Fight City called him a thinking man’s fighter who studied opponents closely, and the IBA says he kept notes on their habits in a notebook. He called boxing mostly mental.

The BBC called him a notoriously slow starter. Gogue’s criticism was too little head movement, and a habit of standing his ground that Phillips used against him.

The punches

The straight right hand was the main weapon. Gogue called it a “straight right hand missile.” Ricky Hatton, looking back in 2021, described him as a long puncher whose power came at the end of the punch, and built his 2005 plan around that. The right is the punch to watch against Chávez and against Judah.

The corner: Lewis in Sydney

Johnny Lewis trained him for his whole professional career, from 1992 to 2005, in Sydney, on a handshake deal. Bill Mordey promoted him early on. Lewis is also the trainer who guided Jeff Fenech, Who’s Who number 12, which makes two men in this painting who came through his corner.

Weight

He boxed as a featherweight, then a lightweight, then a light welterweight as an amateur. Every one of his 34 professional fights was at 140 pounds.

Stories people still tell

1. The towel talk.

   After Phillips he asked Lewis never to stop a fight. Lewis wouldn’t promise. Eight years later, in Manchester, Lewis was the one who stopped it.

2. Father and son.

   In October 2024 he surprised Tim, Who’s Who number 3 at his press conference in Orlando. Both his sons, Tim and Nikita, box professionally.

Legacy

He was the fourth Australian inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, after Young Griffo, Les Darcy and Jeff Fenech, Who’s Who number 12, as the Sydney Morning Herald reported at his 2011 induction. Fenech remembered first seeing him and said “he could be the best I’ve seen.” Ricky Hatton, who ended his career, still puts him among the all-time greats at 140 pounds.