Australian Tim Tszyu extended his unbeaten record to 24 bouts with a unanimous points decision over American Brian Mendoza to defend his WBO super welterweight title.
All three judges scored the bout in Tszyu’s favour, 116-111, 116-112 and 117-111, after a bruising 12-round encounter on Australia’s Gold Coast.
After the win Tszyu immediately called out American WBA, WBC and IBF super welterweight champion Jermell Charlo.
“Charlo, where are you?,“ Tszyu said.
The Australian, 28, won the WBO interim title after beating American Tony Harrison in March and defended it against Mexico’s Carlos Ocampo in June to become mandatory challenger to Charlo.
But, instead of facing Tszyu, Charlo moved up two weight classes for a bout with Mexican undisputed super middleweight champion Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, in which he was beaten by unanimous decision in Las Vegas this month.
Charlo was stripped of his WBO belt when the fight started, with Tszyu elevated from interim to full champion.
“He’ll probably think in his delusional head that he would beat me,” added Tszyu.
“Come get it. Let’s prove to everyone who is king of this division.”
Elsewhere, Kazakhstan’s Janibek Alimkhanuly beat Germany’s Vincenzo Gualtieri to unify two middleweight world boxing titles in a bout between unbeaten champions in Houston.
Southpaw Alimkhanuly kept the WBO title and took the IBF crown from Gualtieri when the referee stopped the fight early in the sixth round.
BBC/Jamiu Ogunshe
