A potential fight between Tim Tszyu and Erickson Lubin has collapsed barely a week after reports had first surfaced of talks being initiated between the two fighters’ teams. While Tszyu is still expected to fight for the IBF mandatory spot on September 22nd in Australia, Lubin’s withdrawal signifies a new opponent—within the top 10 of the IBF’s 154 lbs rankings—will be sought to allow the IBF final eliminator match to proceed as planned.
According to BoxingScene’s Declan Warrington, an IBF purse bid for a final eliminator1 super welterweight (154 lbs) bout had been scheduled for July 30th but will no longer commence as Erickson Lubin (26-2, 18 KO’s) withdrew after the IBF was informed by Lubin’s team that he was “medically unfit” to compete.
Notably, there have been no reports of Lubin suffering any injury, leading to the conclusion that Lubin might have voluntarily withdrawn from the bout as no medical complications have yet been confirmed. Lubin nor his team have yet to comment on this matter.
Based on the fact Lubin was previously also accused of withdrawing from a fight with Tim Tszyu (24-1, 17 KO’s), Lubin’s withdrawal from the scheduled purse bid does breed speculation as to his willingness to face Tszyu. The first alleged withdrawal by Erickson Lubin occurred shortly before the announcement of Tszyu facing Keith Thurman, but notably contained conflicting reports where Lubin denied the allegations of pulling out while Tszyu’s team argued the opposite.
In any case, Lubin’s reputation has taken a sharp hit following his withdrawal, which according to Tim Tszyu aligns with what he believes to be a general fear by American fighters to travel abroad during a recent interview with Fox Sports Australia following the news of Lubin’s withdrawal.
“I know a lot of (American) fighters don’t like to travel. Or are scared to travel. They only need to fly for an hour and already they’re complaining. You feel like saying ‘relax … princesses’. For us Australian fighters, it’s what we have to do … even for camp I’m going to America.”
Tszyu’s statements could be considered a stereotypical belief of what he believes American fighters to be by accusing them of being prone to complain and dislike traveling abroad. Given there are no exact statistics on whether this is true, Tszyu may have brought up a storm of controversy in the wake of his comments given the nature of what was said.
In general, the United States is considered the ideal place to fight for any fighter regardless of nationality, due to the perceived monetary and popularity gains they could receive by fighting in the US. Australia, in comparison, is a country smaller in size and economic power, and simply is not considered an attractive destination to fighters given there are better options available.
This has been made evident by Tim Tszyu himself, who remarked in the recent past that he was no longer interested in fighting in Australia and was looking to fight “big names” in the United States, clearly pointing to the USA being known as a destination for increased gains of popularity and earnings.
Tszyu will now be expected to face any of the other top 10 contenders on the IBF’s 154 lbs rankings list, with current candidates he could be linked with involving #6-rated American Jesus Alejandro Ramos Jr. (21-1, 17 KO’s), #7-rated Puerto Rican contender Xander Zayas (19-0, 12 KO’s), #8-rated Irish fighter Callum Walsh (11-0, 9 KO’s), and [respectively] #9- and #10-rated German contenders Slawa Spomer (19-0, 10 KO’s) and Jack Culcay (33-5, 14 KO’s).
TimTszyu himself had previously also withdrawn for similar reasons, with the cut he suffered during his March 30th loss to Sebastian Fundora (21-1-1, 13 KO’s) having supposedly left him “medically unfit” to engage with scheduled opponent Vergil Ortiz Jr. (21-0, 21 KO’s) on August 3rd.
- Final eliminators are bouts between two top-rated contender where the winner is made the mandatory challenger of a certain division, and to a certain sanctioning body’s title. ↩︎
