Tony Harrison’s brother encourages him to retire after latest stoppage loss

Following his TKO loss over the weekend to Tim Tszyu, the brother of Tony Harrison — who’s worked as his trainer since the passing of their father — says he’d like to see Tony walk away from the sport at this point. As he tells it, he still believes Harrison is a good fighter but thinks age and inactivity have caught up to him and he doesn’t want to see him risk anything more as they have nothing left to prove.

“I definitely appreciate everybody’s support, I take the good with the bad. When you’re winning everything’s lovely, and when you lose they’re ready for you to go...I was in the car with my brother, I had a talk with him. Me, personally, I told him I don’t want to see him in the ring no more. Simple as his body just don’t respond. Boxing is a young man’s sport.

“My brother’s IQ keeps him in a lot of fights but when I see my brother get in the ring and he’s had good camps and he’s sparring good work and I’m seeing him do 12, 13, 14, 15 rounds of sparring, and I see him get in the ring and his body just can’t respond.

“I see it in sparring sometimes, too, and it’s hard on him. And I don’t need money that bad to let my brother continue go in the ring and destroy his legacy that he’s worked so hard to get, which is being a world champion.

“I think at this point my brother is just older. You know, it’s time. It’s what I told him in the car. It’s been a long road, man, and at a certain point with my brother when you lose — it’s hard on both of us...it’s just time, man. I don’t want my brother get in there, be in a situation where his pride is getting hurt more than anything when he’s been working hard, and I think that’s just what it comes down to.

“I think the last two fights, I tried to give it one last push with him, and I think mentally he was there. But physically, father time is just undefeated. So I’m just telling ya’ll like I told him. Hopefully my brother take his time and come up with a decision but I just want to let ya’ll know if it was up to me I don’t want to see him in the ring no more.”