Junior middleweight Nikita ‘The Butcher’ Tszyu 3-0 (2) was taken the distance for the first time in his short career with a six round unanimous decision win over Ben Horn 4-5 at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney, Australia on Wednesday night.
Conventional wisdom suggested the wild swinging Horn would not last more than a couple of rounds, but the younger brother of former WBO welterweight champion Jeff Horn showed real grit to not only last the distance but even have some success late in the fight.
Tszyu, 24, threw many vicious shots to the body throughout the fight, but Horn took them well and never appeared hurt. The awkwardness of Horn seemed to trouble Tszyu at times and he never seemed to quite figure him out. In the final round Horn even managed to land a shot to the head that appeared to stun Tszyu momentarily when they traded in centre ring.
The scores at the conclusion were 60-54, 60-54 and 59-55, all for Tszyu, who said the tougher than expected battle was all part of the learning curve.
“That was the perfect fight I could have had. These are the ones you learn the most from, the ones you develop the most from,” Tszyu said.
“He’s tough. He’s as tough as they get. It was a pleasure to share the ring with him. I was quite surprised. He can take a shot. All credit to him.”
Horn, who has been knocked out twice, said he wasn’t surprised to see out the distance.
“I always knew it was going to go the distance,” Horn said.
“Funnily enough, I was telling him in the sixth round: ‘Is that all you got to the body? I think they’re soft Nikita, come on. Is that what you drop people with? Put it on!’
“I think it made him a little bit angry. I should have started that in round one, I could have cleaned him up with a few more shots.
“He’s a top dude, great fighter, and I can see him going a long way. I’d love to see him win a world title one day along with his brother, so good on him.
“In all honestly, I’m well-conditioned to the body. Honestly, I did not get hurt by one of his body shots… None of them hurt me to the point of dropping.”
Also on the card IBF number nine ranked super bantamweight Sam ‘The Ghost’ Goodman 12-0 (7) showed his class in stopping former world title challenger Juan Miguel Elorde 29-3 (15) in the eighth round of their scheduled 10 round bout.
The 23-year-old Goodman boxed a superb fight, controlling the range and dictating the pace. He changed up his attacks frequently to confuse Elorde and eventually claimed the stoppage victory with a three punch combination in the eighth. Referee Brad Vocale stepped in to stop the one-sided fight at the 1:26 mark.
“I thought I fought a smart fight and disciplined fight,” Goodman said. “I listened to my corner and we had a good game plan. “
