‘I’ll bet $10k’: Incredible backstory that has boxing superstar backing Tszyu’s opponent

Two days after Tony Harrison became the first man to beat American superstar Jermell Charlo, he gave up the WBC belt that came with it.

Not because he didn’t want said world title gold.

No, he just felt somebody deserved it more than him.

Specifically, his old man.

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That same father, you should know, whose face will be inked on Harrison’s chest when he soon arrives Down Under to challenge Tim Tszyu for the interim WBO super welterweight crown.

Just as on his trunks, the Detroit native will carry the acronym LLA.

Or Long Live Ali.

A small, yet telling, tribute to the fighter’s late father, and coach, Ali Salaam.

A man who not only gloved up this dangerous American boxer as, first, a small boy, or later a world champion, but also coached both his sons, Tony and LJ — plus who knows how many others – through countless lessons about not only hard rights or fast feet, but confidence, loyalty, respect and honour.

Believing in young men, they say, when belief was the very thing those young men craved.

Then there are those memories which didn’t seem so big at the time.

Like that night way back in ‘03, when Tony and his father were sat in their their Detroit lounge room, watching on as Green Bay’s Brett Favre took the field just 24 hours after his own father passed from a heart attack.

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Prior to the Monday Night Football game against Oakland, the Packers star quarterback had explained how Irvine Favre would have wanted his boy to play.

So play the grieving son did.

By fulltime, Favre having notched one the greatest performances of his storied NFL career.

At the time, Harrison was 13.

But the game is one, he revealed recently, that he has never forgotten.

Same deal the way his father turned to him midway through and, speaking in a signature tone which never seemed anything but calm, said: “If I ever pass, you have to perform. You have to get the job done”.

All of which brings us now to March 12 — and that hyped world title showdown between Harrison and Australia’s newest boxing star Tim Tszyu.

More than throwing down for the WBO title, or looking to break the collective hearts of an entire continent, this 32-year-old American, and fighter dubbed ‘SuperBad’, can finally gift the ultimate tribute to his greatest supporter, and mate.

Especially given that by the time he steps into the ring against Tszyu, it will have been almost three years to the day since Ali Salaam passed, aged 59, from COVID-19.

A significant loss not only his tight-knit family, but also those countless other young men for whom this old fighter, and son of a fighter, had become a father figure, and mentor — especially inside the family’s SuperBad Boxing gym.

Here, truly, was a man who devoted so much of his life to making young men stronger.

Better.

And proof, his son has said since, “of how important one man’s life can be”.

Which is why when he lands in Australia to face this nation’s latest boxing golden boy, Harrison will have the old man not only inked into his chest, or stitched onto his trunks, but carried in his heart, on his mind, all of it.

Over and over, you’d think, recounting that conversation from the night Brett Favre gave everything.

“You have to get the job done”.

Which also goes more than a little way to explaining why this impending WBO showdown is easily the biggest fight – and risk – of Tszyu’s undefeated career.

Explains too why within hours of said fight being announced, welterweight king Errol Spence Jnr went and tweeted how he’ll be wagering no less than $10,000 on a Harrison upset.

Which is some statement given, as recently as Christmas Eve, it was Tszyu set to fight Charlo in Las Vegas for all four world title straps.

But then, the champ broke his hand sparring.

Meaning the fight was delayed.

With Tszyu, who has always chased the biggest opportunities, and never been keen on sitting idle, then switching focus to either of the next best contenders — Harrison and undefeated Russian Bakhram Murtazaliev.

Eventually, and not for the first time in his life, it was the Detroit tough who came out on to top – and now in seven weeks will fight Tszyu for the interim WBO super welterweight crown.

Which if the Australian wins, guarantees again that shot at Charlo.

But a loss?

Well, that ain’t so pretty.

Which matters given Harrison isn’t just the only man to beat Charlo professionally, but was also boxing incredibly, and up on one scorecard, through 10 rounds of their hyped 2019 rematch.

But then came the 11th and that left hook that changed everything.

With SuperBad dropped by said hook before rising, being dropped again, and rising once more before, soon after, and again taking punishment, the fight was stopped.

Yet since losing that world title, and then his father, Harrison has recovered exactly as you would expect a fella who started out fighting on the Detroit streets — drawing with Bryant Perrella before schooling Spain’s Segio Garcia last April, and earning the WBC silver super welterweight title.

Which continues the story of this third generation fighter whose boxing bloodlines include not only his father but grandfather Henry Hank, who won 62 times over almost 20 years as a professional.

Elsewhere, Tszyu’s latest foe is also a two-time Michigan Golden Gloves champion who, early on in his professional career, got what some would claim to be the best education possible from legendary US trainer Emanuel Steward.

In fact, it was the Hall of Fame coach who not only encouraged Harrison to turn pro instead of chasing Olympic glory, but also made the youngster one of his last proteges before passing in October, 2012.

In their 18 months together, Harrison would not only stop his first eight opponents – including five within the first round – but also fight four times in Europe on the undercard of another Steward charge, heavyweight champ Wladimir Klitschko.

So fighting outside the US, or before crowds wanting him to lose, it isn’t anything new.

Which again, returns us to Tszyu.

That undefeated Aussie, and son of Hall of Famer Kostya Tszyu, who is readying to headline his family’s first world title fight on home soil in 20 years.

But this story, it isn’t about the Tszyu clan.

No, this yarn belongs to Harrison, to his father, and to all those lessons delivered in the calmest of tones.

Importantly, it also belongs to that night on the couch, almost 20 years ago, when the pair sat watching Brett Favre give every inch of his being to an athletic pursuit.

That, and the memory of a father.

Which, in turn, caused Ali Salaam to turn and tell his boy those words that have never been forgotten.

“You have to get the job done”.