'What a joke': Boxing world left raging over Tim Tszyu 'disgrace'

Aussie boxing fans were left seething on Sunday over one judge's scores for Tim Tszyu's victory over Terrell Gausha in his much-anticipated US debut.

Tszyu overcame illness and an alarming first-round knockdown to announce his arrival on the international stage with a unanimous points decision in Minneapolis.

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The Aussie conceded dark thoughts crept into his head after Gausha sent him crashing to the canvas in the opening two minutes of the all-or-nothing world title eliminator.

But the 27-year-old showed true grit to recover and win over the trio of American judges, claiming a brave victory that keeps his world title dream alive.

The judges scored the fight 116-111, 115-111 and 114-113 in Tszyu's favour, with the latter causing uproar in the boxing world.

Tszyu landed 236 punches at 31.5 per cent, while Gausha only landed 163 at 27.8 per cent.

Fans and commentators were left gobsmacked that judge Robert Hecko felt the fight was as close as it was.

Boxing reporter Dan Rafael said the 114-113 score was “absurd”, while Brendan Bradford of CODE Sports called it “tremendously bad judging”.

Tim Tszyu vows to learn from Terrell Gausha scare

Tszyu enhanced his undefeated record to 21-0 and retained the No.1 WBO super-welterweight ranking.

But the ailing Australian - suffering from the flu - had critics raising "question marks" about his performance.

"Oh man, there's definitely some shit thoughts going through your head," Tszyu told Fox Sports' Main Event after being floored by a stunning right-hand blow to his head.

"That's a great lesson for myself; I got back up and I dug deep."

Asked what he still had to learn before hopefully facing the winner of the May 14 rematch between Jermell Charlo and Brian Castano, Tszyu said: "Everything".

"Everything and anything. There's a lot more to learn. This sport, there's so much to learn.

"You've got to keep going, keep training hard and keep on improving and keep fighting warriors like Terrell Gausha."

Commentating from ringside, Australian boxing legend Jeff Fenech agreed that Tszyu will need to address some weaknesses to be ready for Charlo or Castano.

"The performance was great," Fenech said.

"But there were so many different things that I've seen today that he can fix.

"He wasn't slipping to the side, making the jab miss and coming over with the right hand. He was trying to go straight through it.

"He was leading with the left hook, which left him open for the straight right hand.

"And the biggest thing was those pity-pat punches, where he was trying to set one big one up. instead of just getting to the side and working the body and then coming up."

with AAP

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