Tim Tszyu asked for Erislandy Lara by name, and No Limit Boxing went and got him. The promoter confirmed in an Oct. 13 press release that Tszyu will challenge Lara for the WBA middleweight world championship.
Careful what you wish for. Lara is 43 years old, 32-3-3 with 19 KOs, and he is the single worst stylistic assignment at 160 pounds for a fighter who likes to come forward. Tszyu, 28-3 with 18 KOs, likes to come forward.
The style clash is the whole fight
The Cuban southpaw has built a career out of turning aggressive men into guys who miss. He fights in angles and half-steps, and at middleweight he has carried real finishing power with him. Lara stopped Michael Zerafa and Danny Garcia in 2024, then dropped Johan Gonzalez twice on the way to a unanimous decision in 2025. That is not a champion coasting on reputation.
Tszyu knows exactly what is waiting for him. “Lara is a great champion. He’s slick, clever and stylistically very hard,” he said. “He’ll want to turn this into a chess match but I’ve never taken the easy road. I want the man with the belt, and I’ll drag him into a fight he doesn’t want.”
That last sentence is the tactical plan said out loud. Tszyu needs volume, body work and sustained physical pressure, and he needs to make a 43-year-old champion fight at a pace no 43-year-old wants. If the bout settles into long range and becomes a counterpunching exhibition, Lara banks rounds that Tszyu will never get back on the cards.
Tszyu earned this the hard way
Rewind two years and this matchup looks absurd. Tszyu went 1-3 to close out his super welterweight run, a stretch that ended that chapter of his career. He moved up to 160, beat Anthony Velazquez and Denis Nurja, then took a wide unanimous decision over Errol Spence Jr. in Sydney in July, Spence’s first fight in roughly three years.
Three straight wins and a move to Jeff Fenech’s gym have changed the temperature around him. “At 160 I feel strong, sharp and dangerous,” Tszyu said. “Middleweight is my division now, Spence was just the appetizer.”
The Spence win deserves context rather than dismissal. Beating a former champion who had been inactive for three years is a solid result, not proof of a title-level ceiling. Lara is the fight that tells us whether the middleweight version of Tszyu is real, which is precisely why it is the right fight to take.
No Limit CEO George Rose framed it as a legacy swing. “Lara is a nightmare for anyone. Tim wanted and called for him by name. He wants legacy and the time is now.”
What has not been settled
Almost every logistical detail. Bad Left Hook reports the fight is planned for late November, but that date is not confirmed. BoxingNews24 says no date, venue, broadcaster or ticket information has been released, and that the promoters expect to announce those details in the coming weeks.
So treat late November as a target rather than a fact, and expect the specifics to firm up before anyone sells a ticket.
What is settled is the matchup, and it is the one Tszyu should have taken. He could have chased a vacant strap or a friendly name and called it a world title. Instead he called out the hardest champion in the division, at an age where Lara’s legs are the only real question. If Tszyu wins, nobody gets to put an asterisk on it.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.