The Horn-Tszyu fight looks a bridge too far, but Tim Tszyu's camp is keen to bring a fight to Canberra in the next year.
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Jeff Horn and Tszyu are set to lock horns in a mouth-watering bout on April 22 with Canberra Stadium one of the venues being considered.
That's looking unlikely with the price of bringing the fight to the capital believed to be too high.
But The Canberra Times can reveal the ACT aren't out of the running to host Tszyu in the future.
His promoter Matt Rose, who also managers Canberra Raiders star Jack Wighton, felt there was lots of interest in the Horn-Tszyu clash making it tough for Canberra Stadium to compete.
But he was keen to keep the capital on the radar for further down the track.
"Super keen to bring a Tim Tszyu fight to Canberra at some stage," Rose said.
"At this stage there's obviously a lot of people trying to get the Tszyu-Horn fight, but I know talking to the team I've mentioned Canberra as definitely a possibility for Tim to fight in the next year or so.
"His appeal across the Australian sporting public is growing and I think a fight in Canberra would be pretty cool and would be something most fans of sport would love to see happen in Canberra."
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The ACT government were open to bringing Tszyu to town.
He's the son of Australian boxing royalty, with his father Kostya Tszyu a former world champion.
Canberra Stadium officials had discussions with Horn's promoter Dean Lonergan about the Tszyu fight.
"The ACT government welcomes discussions with promoters or sporting bodies interested in bringing events to Canberra," a spokesperson said.
Rose was expecting the Horn-Tszyu clash to transcend boxing and capture the attention of a sport-hungry Australian public.
"We've got huge attraction from so many people. It's going to be a sporting event, it won't be a boxing event," he said.
"It's going to be a big event that's going to be watched by hundreds of thousands people across Australia.
"When you have two of the best take on each other, like in any sport, it attracts a lot of attention. And in this case we've got two of the best."
David Polkinghorne
Covering the Raiders, Cavalry, cycling and racing, plus everything else that involves sport in the ACT, for The Canberra Times. Basically I love sport and watching it is a full-time job. Email: david.polkinghorne@canberratimes.com.au
Covering the Raiders, Cavalry, cycling and racing, plus everything else that involves sport in the ACT, for The Canberra Times. Basically I love sport and watching it is a full-time job. Email: david.polkinghorne@canberratimes.com.au
