Los Angeles: Joe Goossen, right now, is watching exactly what once made him rush a boxing ring in El Paso, Texas.
“It’s that left hand to the liver,” says the Hall of Fame trainer, nodding over to where Tim Tszyu is sweating through another workout inside his famed Los Angeles gym.
“It’s so similar to the old man.
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“Left to the body, to the head … he might as well be a clone.”
Then after a short pause, Goossen adds: “I think Tim has the old man’s right too.
“And Kostya Tszyu, great frickin’ right. When he hit you with that thing … it was curtains.”
Seated now on a tall wooden stool inside his Ten Goose Boxing gym, one of America’s sharpest fight minds is explaining to Fox Sports Australia what it’s like to see a ghost.
Or close enough.
With the undefeated Tszyu, as part of preparations for his blockbuster world title showdown with Jermell Charlo on January 29 in Las Vegas, now training daily out of Goossen’s gym.
Better, and around five o’clock each afternoon, this champion coach who also now doubles as a Fox Sports analyst will lock said base down so the offspring of that fighter he once prepared against himself can train away from prying eyes.
“And for the son of Kostya Tszyu – anything,” he says.
Which again, is all about that ghost.
With the trainer recalling how 24 years ago, he was forced into the ring to ensure one of his own favourite fighters, former IBF lightweight champ Rafael Ruelas – a charge he had trained since childhood – copped no more from Australia’s ‘Thunder From Down Under’.
Back then, Kostya Tszyu was still only 28 – and on the cusp of sporting greatness.
Which is why after watching him dominate Ruelas through eight rounds, Goossen then rushed the ring early in the ninth and waved it off.
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“And you know me, I’m all for late round knockouts,” says the trainer whose clients have included the likes of Riddick Bowe, Shane Mosley, Amir Khan and Diego Corrales.
A man too, who has just been announced as a 2023 Boxing Hall of Fame inductee – joining the likes of Timothy Bradley, Rafael Marquez and Carl Froch.
A trainer who, put simply, has never given up.
“But as a trainer, you have to know when to hold ‘em and know when to fold ‘em,” the now 69-year-old continues.
“And that night, Kostya Tszyu came with a whole new mission.”
Watching the younger Tszyu continue to work as he speaks, Goossen explains how the Ruelas fight came only one year after Kostya’s first loss – against American Vince Phillips.
“And this was our problem,” he concedes.
“After that loss to Phillips, Kostya went totally into workout trainers, strength trainers, dietitians, everything.
“He entered his prime, built an empire of specialists around him … and then we got him.”
Importantly, he adds, Ruelas was also nearing the end of his own career when he walked out for the WBC light welterweight title eliminator.
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“Rafael had jammed almost 60 fights into less than 10 years,” Goossen says of the man who also faced Oscar De La Hoya for the IBF and WBO straps.
“It’s a lot of fights.
“So knowing that, it was a determining factor (in rushing the ring).
“Same as the fact Kostya was still looking as sharp in the eighth, then ninth as he did in the first.
“He just wasn’t slowing down.
“Which is why I stopped it.”
Not that, initially, his charge agreed.
“Rafael was very upset that I got into the ring,” Goossen recalls.
“Just look at the tape, he turns to me like ‘what are you doing in here?’.
“But looking back later, he understood he would’ve had to knock Kostya out.
“It was a tough fight.”
Tellingly, the result also goes a long way to explaining what Goossen sees this particular Friday evening inside an almost empty fight gym.
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“And obviously,” the trainer says, again looking toward Tim Tszyu. “Because this is a fighter whose father taught him everything.
“And dad wasn’t going to teach him Sugar Ray Leonard’s style.
“He taught Kostya Tszyu style.
“It worked for him and now it’s working for Tim too.”
In fact, there is only one difference between the two that really perturbs this impending Hall Of Famer.
“It’s the names,” he laughs. “And that quantum leap from Kostya to Tim.
“How does that happen?
“For me, that’s the biggest question of them all.”
