Junior middleweight Nikita ‘The Butcher’ Tszyu 7-0 (6) will face the toughest test of his short career when he challenges Australian 154-pound champion Dylan Biggs 10-0 (7) at the Newcastle Entertainment Centre in Newcastle, Australia tomorrow night.
If the 25-year-old Sydney southpaw is successful, he will be the first boxer in his famous family to win a national crown.
Tszyu is the son of International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee and undisputed junior welterweight champion Kostya Tszyu and the younger brother of undefeated WBO junior middleweight champion Tim Tszyu.
The lead-up to the Biggs vs Tszyu bout has gotten heated at times, with the latest point of contention being who enters the ring second.
Normally that would be the champion, but with Tszyu being the A-side and the fight taking place on his promoter No Limit’s show, it looks like Biggs will be forced to enter the ring first.
Not everyone is happy with that idea. You can count retired former world champion Shawn Porter, who will be part of the local broadcast team on Main Event, amongst their number.
Tradition, says Porter, should mean something in boxing.
“I think Nikita should be walking first,” Porter told News.com.au. “He isn’t the champion. Dylan is right. He is the Australian super welterweight champion.
“He supposed to walk second. You honour that.
“I get what Nikita’s doing. It’s great tactics. You get buzz going, people talking and beyond that, you get your opponent worried and concerned about things. It’s good tactics on both sides, I like it.”
With the bad blood between Tszyu and Biggs in the buildup, Porter is expecting sparks to fly.
“I think this is going to be a dynamite fight, an underrated fight in my personal opinion,” he said.
“This is war. This is nuclear, right here. I can see both guys going down. We’re definitely going to see both guys get hurt multiple times during this fight.
“At the end of the day, I hate to see guys get battered, but we’re going to see some hurt on fight night on both sides, which I think is the intriguing part of boxing.”
Tszyu is known for his aggressive, freewheeling style that makes for entertaining fights. Biggs, 21, has a tighter style but can also whack.
“It’s either going to work for Nikita or it’s going to work against him. That’s how boxing goes. This is who gets who first, 100 per cent,” Porter said.
“He hasn’t had anyone that can capitalise on the small mistakes that he does make. I think the biggest mistake that Nikita makes is he punches and then he stands there or he doesn’t punch and punches come at him and they touch him.
“This is definitely a fight he can’t afford to be defensively irresponsible. That’s a part of his nature. He gets hit. But he does a lot of hitting too.”
