Sydney—Australian Tim Tszyu stopped American Tony Harrison in round nine with a blistering performance Sunday, lifting the interim WBO super welterweight title.
The unbeaten 28-year-old Australian won by a technical knockout in the Sydney bout after letting loose a flurry of powerful right-handers.
Tszyu, son of former light welterweight world champion Kostya Tszyu, said his victory sent a message to US undisputed world super welterweight boxing champion Jermell Charlo.
“The message was sent clearly. You know what’s coming. I’m coming. I am coming to America,” he told an arena packed with Australian fans.
Tszyu was poised to fight Charlo in Las Vegas in January.
But Charlo’s defence of all four major sanctioning body world crowns was postponed when his promoters announced in December that he had broken his left hand during training.
Charlo has recorded only one loss in his career—when Harrison won a unanimous decision over him in December 2018 in New York.
Charlo came back a year later and defeated Harrison in a rematch.
On Sunday, the 32-year-old Harrison tried to keep Tszyu at bay for much of the fight with a string of rapid-fire jabs.
But the Australian’s powerful hooks and uppercuts finally took their toll, dropping the American and leading the referee to stop the onslaught.
Meanwhile, Japan’s Naoya Inoue will fight for two world titles in his super-bantamweight debut when he takes on American Stephen Fulton in Yokohama in May, the boxer nicknamed “Monster” said.
The unbeaten Inoue became the first undisputed world bantamweight champion in half a century when he beat England’s Paul Butler in December to add the WBO title to his WBC, WBA and IBF belts.
The 29-year-old, who has a 24-0 record with 21 knock-outs, vacated his titles in January to move up to the super-bantamweight division.
He intends to make an instant impact against WBC and WBO title-holder Fulton, who is unbeaten in 21 fights with eight knock-outs.
“All I can do is believe in myself,” Inoue told reporters at a press conference in Tokyo.