Nikita Tszyu blows world away, KO’ing Koen Mazoudier ‘from nowhere’

Nikita Tszyu has survived a “fight of the year contender” in an absolute war with Koen Mazoudier with a wild finish.

Nikita Tszyu has done it again. Photo: Fox Sports

Nikita Tszyu has taken another step towards the world stage after claiming a huge win over a more than willing Koen Mazoudier.

Both men had been slugging it out for the entire length of the fight with Tszyu looking in trouble at times against the pride of Blacktown.

BOXING: NIKITA TSZYU V MAZOUDIER | WED 28 AUG 7PM AEST | Order Now with Main Event on Kayo Sports.

Former two-time welterweight champion Shawn Porter said that Tsyzu seemed “gassed” in round eight.

But midway through the ninth, a huge left hand rocked Mazoudier and “The Butcher” went for the kill, unloading a barrage of punches.

“The Dark Prince reigns supreme,” Ben Damon said on Main Event after the impressive finish.

“How did he do that?” Porter asked, with Damon adding: “From nowhere.”

That punch was the beginning of the end for Mazoudier. Photo: Fox Sports

Tszyu had to dig deep. Photo: Fox Sports

Damon added it will be “a fight of the year candidate”, while Tszyu will take his 10-0 record on the world stage as he will now be ranked with both the WBO and the IBF.

Before the fight, Tszyu said he wanted a war but it probably wasn’t what he was expecting.

“I had to work for that, that was not easy,” he told Damon in the ring.

“It sucked during the fight but the feeling right now is indescribable.”

Tszyu said Mazoudier is “one tough bastard”, adding “I did not expect him to be that hard, I did not expect the fight to be that hard”.

Tszyu revealed that during the middle when he was “out on his feet”, his uncle/trainer Igor Guloubev asked if he was “going to stop the fight”.

“I said no, I had to push though and dig deep,” he said. “This is where strength comes from, pushing through those tough times.

“I just kept saying ‘don’t be a b***h, don’t be a p***y, keep fighting”.

Tszyu’s next fight is seemingly all but locked in against Michael Zerafa.

Zerafa was the co-main event but his fight ended in chaos after the Melburnian had a first round retirement victory over Tommy Browne that erupted into chaos after his brother jumped into the ring and punched Browne’s trainer Tommy Mercuri.

Zerafa was meant to go into the ring at the end of the fight and challenge Tsyzu face-to-face but left in a cab before the end of the fight.

Tszyu said the Mazoudier fight was a “wake up call” as he’ll have to be better to take on bigger fights, particularly with international fights potentially in the near future.

Tszyu was heavily marked. Photo: Fox Sports

No Limit Boxing promoter George Rose said Nikita is “ready to keep going to the top”.

Post-fight, The Courier Mail’s Peter Badel said he was “still in shock”.

“What have we just seen? That was just brutality,” Badel said. “That is fight of the year stuff.

“I was not only blown away by the toughness of Mazoudier but what about the resilience of Nikita Tszyu, is there a gutsier fighter in Australia? What a fighter, what a warrior.”

Porter said Tszyu had plenty of work to do, saying: “The next phase is how do we keep ourselves safe.”

“When you’re a fighter that’s now 10-0 and you’ve been rocked as many times as Nikita has — yeah it’s entertaining for everyone, yeah you keep coming back — but now it’s time to be responsible so he can have longevity he wants to have,” Porter said.

While Tszyu’s ranking means he can now fight for a world title, Badel said that potentially he should continue clearing out his backyard, pointing to Zerafa, Wade Ryan, Benjamin Hussein and Mounir Fathi as potential fights.

Porter said that Tszyu “still needed to work on before he makes that leap”.

“He said tonight was a wake up call for him — going over to the states, I’m not tooting the horn of the United States, but you get such good training and sparring over there that you have wake up calls in training,” Porter said. “Those things won’t show up on fight night because the level of training is at such a high level.”

But Porter admitted that Tsyzu “could be a world champion”, saying he had “all the internal intangibles to do it”.

Originally published as Nikita Tszyu blows world away, KO’ing Koen Mazoudier ‘from nowhere’