I t was after midnight on November 4, 2001, when Kostya Tszyu returned to his suite on the upper floors of the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The adrenaline was still coursing through his veins, but he was strangely relaxed. He felt at peace with the world. Looking out the window, he admired the neon-lit skyline and took a deep breath as he soaked it all in. Everything was so beautiful. “The first thought that came to my mind was ‘This world belongs to me,’” Tszyu recently told The Ring from his home in Moscow. “‘This is all mine.’ And it was.”
ODDSMAKERS 25 YEARS AGO BELIEVED IT WAS ZAB JUDAH’S DESTINY TO BE THE UNDISPUTED CHAMPION AT 140 POUNDS, BUT KOSTYA TSZYU WAS READING A DIFFERENT SET OF STARS By Anthony Cocks
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A few short hours earlier, the Australia-based Russian had scored a career-defining victory when he knocked out the heavily favored Zab Judah in the dying moments of the second round to claim the undisputed junior welterweight championship of the world. The impact of Tszyu’s right hand to Judah’s chin echoed around the arena, but the repercussions were felt around the world. Any doubt about who was the best 140-pounder on the planet had been erased. The result, according to Tszyu, had been written in the stars.
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