Undefeated junior middleweight Nikita ‘The Butcher’ Tszyu 7-0 (6) prevailed by sixth-round knockout against ‘Gelignite’ Jack Brubaker 17-5-2 (8) in an all-out war at the Hordern Pavilion on Sydney, Australia on Wednesday night.
Southpaw Tszyu, 25, got the better of the first two frames of their scheduled eight round contest, but Brubaker rallied back in the third to drop Tszyu and get the better of the action.
In reality it was an accidental head clash that sent the youngest son of Hall of Famer Kostya Tszyu to the canvas and caused swelling under his eye, but regardless it was a Brubaker round.
The fourth round featured wild two-way action with Tszyu getting the better of the exchanges against the willing Brubaker, 31.
The toughness of Brubaker was again on display in the fifth. Battered, bruised and bleeding, every time he looked on the verge of succumbing he would rally back.
Between rounds Brubaker’s corner warned him that he would need to show them something to prevent them from stopping the fight, but in the sixth Brubaker simply couldn’t keep Tszyu off him forcing the corner to stop the fight at the 2:40 mark.
The scorecards, which read 49-46, 49-45 and 48-46 all in favour of Tszyu, didn’t do justice to the fight.
“For my first pay-per-view this was my perfect test,” Tszyu told Main Event post-fight.
“I faced adversity and copped a nice little headbutt. That right hand afterwards rocked me, I can honestly say. All credit to Jack, it was a perfect test for me.
“He is such a tough fighter… I was hitting him with some pretty hard shots and he was talking back to me the whole time.
“I can’t put into words how much I am enjoying this moment right now.”
For Brubaker it was the second time he had lost to a Tszyu after being stopped by Nikita’s older brother Tim in the fourth round four years ago.
“I sort of wasn’t really sure what hurt him, he is a warrior and he is built tough,” Brubaker said.
“Nikita is a tough boy, he punches like a horse. I’ve never been hurt, but with Nikita it was damn close.”
In the co-main event super featherweight contender Liam Wilson 12-2 (7) pitched a virtual shutout to get back in the winner’s column with a 10-round points win over Carlos Alanis 12-1 (4).
The 27-year-old Wilson was having his first fight back since his controversial world title challenge against Emanuel Navarrete 38-1 (31) in February.
WBO number five Wilson wants a rematch with Navarrete and moved one step closer to achieving that with his victory over Argentina’s Alanis, the WBO’s number 13 contender.
Wilson was the aggressor throughout the fight, walking down the 25-year-old Alanis who looked more concerned about surviving than making a fight of it.
In the seventh Wilson had Alanis down from a body shot but couldn’t close the show before the final bell, running away the winner by scores of 100-89 twice and 98-91.
