DOB: September 19, 1969
Weight: Junior welterweight
Style: Orthodox
Trainer: Johnny Lewis
Total fights: 34
Wins: 31
Wins by KO: 25
Losses: 2
Draws: 0
IBF World Junior-Welterweight Champion (January 28, 1995 - May 31, 1997)
IBF World Junior-Welterweight Champion (November 3, 2001 - June 4, 2005)
WBA World Junior-Welterweight Champion (February 3, 2001 - June 16, 2004 (stripped))
WBC World Junior-Welterweight Champion (August 21, 1999 - 2003 (stripped))
Tszyu started raising his quality of opposition almost immediately. In his fourth professional bout, he met the former WBC Featherweight champion of the world Juan Laporte, decisioning him over ten rounds. In his sixth bout, he beat contender Sammy Fuentes by a knockout in the first. Fuentes would go onto win a world title years after being handily beaten by Tszyu in 1993, Steve Larrimore, Larry La Crousiere and Robert Rivera, went to Australia to fight Tszyu, and none lasted more than two rounds. The only man to last more than two rounds with Tszyu in '93 was Livingstone Bramble, a former world Lightweight champion, who lost by decision to Tszyu at Newcastle, Australia. In 1994, Hector Lopez, Angel Hernandez, who had just come off of a loss after challenging Julio César Chávez for the WBC belt and Pedro Chinito Sanchez, from the Dominican Republic tried to beat Tszyu, but Tszyu beat Lopez by a decision in ten, Hernandez by a knockout in seven, and Sanchez by a knockout in four. After the win against Sanchez, Tszyu was ranked number one in the Jr. Welterweights.
In 1995, he received his first world title shot when he fought IBF world junior welterweight champion Jake Rodriguez at Las Vegas, Nevada. Tszyu became world champion by knocking Rodriguez out in the sixth round, and then defended the world title, beating former world junior lightweight and junior welterweight champion Roger Mayweather by a decision in 12, Hugo Pineda by a knockout in 11, Cory Johnson by a knockout in four and Jan Bergman by a knockout in six.
1997 began for Tszyu when his defence against Leonardo Moro Mas was declared a no contest because Mas' camp protested that the blow that finished their fight in the first round was actually a low blow. Undecided whether it was a low blow or a legal blow, the IBF and the Nevada Athletic Commission decided to declare it a no contest instead. For his next bout, however, Tszyu wasn't as lucky, and he lost for the first time, losing by a knockout in ten rounds to Vince Phillips, who also took with that, Tzsyu's world championship. He regrouped after that defeat, and came back to beat Ismael Chaves just before year's end.
After beating former world champions Calvin Grove (KO2) and Rafael Ruelas (KO9), Tszyu was given another world title try, when the WBC's belt became vacant in 1998 following Oscar de la Hoya's move to the Welterweight division, and Tszyu found himself twice on the canvas in round one of his fight for the vacant belt against Diosbelys Hurtado, but recuperated to beat Hurtado by a knockout in five and become world champion once again. He retained the title once in 1999, knocking out former world champion Miguel Angel Gonzalez in ten, and twice in 2000, beating Arizona's fringe contender Ahmed Santos in eight, and a 38 year old Mexican legend Julio César Chávez, the former world champion, in six at Phoenix, Arizona.
