If you had to sum up Aussie boxing fans’ reaction to Tim Tszyu’s crushing world title loss in one word, it’d be ‘shock’ – but a simple look back at how he became a world champion shows the defeat was a long time coming.

Russia’s Bakhram Murtazaliev made the 29-year-old look second-rate as he crushed him in three rounds on Sunday, despite the fact the Australian was a massive favourite with bookies everywhere.

Tszyu was coming off a controversial loss to highly rated Sebastian Fundora and was widely expected to regain his world title against Murtazaliev, who was paying as much as a staggering $5.75 to win.

But within minutes of Tszyu’s corner throwing in the towel as he was battered across the ring, two-time world champion Shawn Porter had branded him ‘arrogant’ – and he hit the nail on the head.

Porter used the word because Tszyu made a huge mistake with his plan for the fight, walking straight into Murtazaliev despite the Russian’s reputation for fearsome punching power.

The Aussie was wildly overconfident about his ability to trade with Murtazaliev and knock him out – and it’s been a feature of his boxing for a while.

Fight fans saw it when he was knocked down as he walked into a straight right from lightly regarded fighter Terrell Gausha in round one of his first fight in the USA in 2022.

Tszyu won the fight on points, but his response to the knockdown was telling: ‘He kept landing shots and I just thought, f**k it, I’m just going to keep coming forward and fighting.’

That mindset worked fine against Gausha, who has average power for a professional boxer – but Murtazaliev’s fists are in another league entirely.

Displaying that same go straight ahead at all costs, power solves everything attitude served Tszyu well as he rose to become WBO super welterweight world champion, but his success also masked problems with his fighting.

The son of Hall of Fame legend Kostya smashed his way through slippery fighters like Tony Harrison, heavy-handed but defensively bad Carlos Ocampo, and noted hardhead Brian Mendoza, who is known for absorbing punishment but doesn’t match Murtazaliev for power.

And with every victory against boxers who weren’t on the level of Fundora or the Russian, Tszyu’s reputation as a destroyer kept getting pumped up.

So it’s little wonder he kept relying on his dynamite right hand to get him through, while not showing much of the tactical nous, footwork and head movement he’d need once he came up against the absolute cream of the division.

If you need proof that Tszyu took Murtazaliev far too lightly while taking too much notice of his inflated reputation, look no further than what he said before last Sunday’s disaster in Florida.

He told the world he wanted to become Australia’s highest-paid athlete, ahead of multi-millionaire stars like the NBA’s Ben Simmons, the NFL’s Jordan Mailata and golfing star Cameron Smith, who signed a deal with LIV worth a reported $100million.

Tszyu said he was looking at houses ahead of a move to Las Vegas because his future lay in America. 

He announced he was chasing fights with Terence Crawford and Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez – who have solid cases to be named the best pound-for-pound fighters on the planet.

Those fights aren’t just on the backburner now; they’re completely off the table, and Tim will have to claw his way back to contender status, then win belts, before they can ever become reality.

He and his team have nobody to blame but themselves. Either they came up with and agreed on his strategy of walking straight ahead and trying to out-blast Murtazaliev, or his coaches wanted him to fight differently and he ignored them.

‘The body language of Tim Tszyu was very arrogant,’ Porter said after the loss.

‘That was one-sided and I could see that coming from the opening bell.

‘They should not have tried to fight fire with fire. Moving and turning and using the jab would have been the right thing to do.’

Big-name boxing writer Adam Abromowitz blasted Tszyu’s lack of defence and said Murtazaliev’s win ‘wasn’t a fluke’, adding, ‘This was a guy exploiting a hole.’

Tszyu and his team dug that hole by not working harder on his footwork, head movement and ability to slip punches, and they got buried in Florida as a result.

The hype around Tszyu has made most Aussie boxing fans believe he’s the best fighter the nation has right now – but that is a long way from the truth, and has been since long before Tim’s shattering loss.

Jai Opetaia is, without doubt, the best Australian fighter going, and that has been the case since he first grabbed the cruiserweight world title with an incredible victory over Mairis Briedis in 2022, winning on points despite getting his jaw broken in two places.

The 29-year-old started his distinguished amateur career when he was just 16, won the World Junior Championship in 2011 at light heavyweight, and boasts a 26-0 record with 20 wins by knockout as a professional.