Rising junior middleweight champion Tim Tszyu had hoped to face former world champion Tony Harrison in November, but that contest has fallen through.

Talks were ongoing to secure Harrison for a showdown with Tszyu on a date in November, in Australia.

“We thought we had a deal! We’ve made a very significant offer for a former world champion in Tony Harrison to fight the man who is now mandatory for the world title, Tim Tszyu,” said Tszyu's promoter, George Rose from No Limit, to Ben Damon of Fox Sports.

“We expected to see a signed contract this week but now Harrison is making very different noises. If he doesn’t want the fight and he won’t travel then that is unfortunate but we understand."

Tszyu in mandated for a crack at WBO world champion Brian Castano.

Harrison was viewed as the perfect test before Tszyu's handlers applied heavy pressure for a 2022 showdown with Castano.

Tszyu is willing to face other tough alternatives in the weight class - like Harrison's PBC stablemate, Olympian Terrell Gausha. 

“Tim has been very vocal about wanting to take out the entire Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) roster so there are world-ranked boxers like Sebastian Fundora, Terrell Gausha and Sergio Garcia there, and others,” said Rose to Damon.

“Or we could look at other international options like Japan’s Takeshi Inoue. It’s a stacked division and they are all massive names and very dangerous fights, which is exactly what Tim wants.”

The upcoming outing will be the third ring appearance for Tszyu (19-0, 15 KOs). He took down world title challenger Dennis Hogan in five rounds back in February, and then returned in July with a three round stoppage of late replacement Steve Spark.