Nikita Tszyu vs Dylan Biggs: Sparring session knockdown behind Australian title fight

Four months into his boxing career, a straight right hand from Dylan Biggs at practice knocked Nikita Tszyu down. Now Tszyu wants to put the record straight and right the wrongs of that day.

Nikita Tszyu has earned a shot at the Australian super welterweight title. Picture: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

It was a straight right hand that sent Nikita Tszyu to the canvas in 2021.

Then just four months into his return to boxing, Tszyu went down momentarily, before rising quickly and resuming the session.

But by then, tongues were already wagging and messages flying around the Australian boxing scene.

The story took on a life of its own as each retelling added more mayo.

“Dylan Biggs just knocked out Nikita Tszyu!”

Two years and seven professional wins later, Tszyu wants to put the record straight and right the wrongs of that day.

And he’ll finally get that opportunity on Saturday, November 22 in Newcastle when he fights for Biggs’ Australian super-welterweight title.

“I was walking flat footed, and he caught me when I was fatigued,” Tszyu told this masthead at Thursday’s press conference to announce the fight.

Nikita Tszyu is hoping to set the record straight when he takes on Dylan Biggs, the fighter who knocked him down in practice in 2021. Picture: Tony Gough

“I’d been back boxing for only three or four months after an eight year lay-off. I was very new to it, and I don’t want to make excuses, but I’ve always had trouble with blisters on my feet, and I wasn’t even really able to walk.

“I shouldn’t have even been sparring.

“The way I see it, he’s very confident about that sparring session, let him be. He literally got me at my very worst.”

Meanwhile, the 10-0 Biggs just wants to put the whole thing behind him.

“Yeah definitely sick of talking about it,” he told this masthead. “Sparring is sparring, it’s not a fight so you can’t take much from it and it was a long time ago.

“Big gloves, headgear, it’s a different story.”

Despite Biggs’ unwillingness to talk it up, Tszyu’s camp feels Biggs’ team has used the incident in the past to promote their fighter.

“You’ve gotta bring some sort of narrative and interest, because this is a sport and it’s a business,” Tszyu said. “If that’s the narrative they want to go with, then so be it.”

Tszyu’s camp feels Biggs’ team has used the incident in the past to promote their fighter. Picture: Supplied.

Biggs locked in a title defence against Tszyu with an impressive first round knockout of Ryan Mitchem last month.

The win showcased Biggs’ power and killer instincts, but Tszyu isn’t reading too much into it.

“I didn’t even watch it, I knew what the result was going to be,” he said. “I knew what they were doing. They were putting a lamb on a little platter for him to devour.

“It was expected, so there’s nothing you can take from it.”

Biggs has his own gripes in the lead up to the fight.

As the Australian champion, his name should be first on the billing – he should be the A-side.

But Tszyu has the name recognition and all the weight of a promotional backing.

It’ll just make it sweeter when he wins, says Biggs.

“All the boxing fans and people who actually know boxing, watch it and know the sport, they know I’m the A-side,” he said.

“All the couch fans, the ones who sit at home and the keyboard warriors, they all love Nikita Tszyu.

“That’s fine, but I know all the real boxing fans know the real story, and that’s all that matter to me.”

TSZYU BEAUTY! NIKITA’S BIG TITLE SHOT IN AUSSIE SUPER FIGHT

Nikita Tszyu will follow in the footsteps of his world-champion brother Tim by fighting for an Australian title after securing the biggest bout of his boxing career.

Just 19 months after launching his professional career, the former architect-turned-knockout artist will challenge for the very Australian super welterweight title his elder sibling, Tim Tszyu, held four years ago.

Buoyed by his epic disposal of Jack Brubaker in August, Nikita (7-0, 6KO) will take on defending champion Dylan Biggs (10-0, 7KO) in a blockbuster bout at the Newcastle Entertainment Centre on Wednesday, November 22.

Nikita Tszyu will take on defending champion Dylan Biggs (pictured) for the Australian title.

The unbeaten rising stars will be the main event on No Limit’s latest trip to ‘Tszyu-castle’ and the title showdown shapes as a blockbuster Australian super fight.

Tim Tszyu claimed the national super welterweight strap in 2019 with a commanding unanimous decision over Joel Camilleri and now Nikita is hellbent on returning the belt to Australian boxing’s royal family.

But ‘The Butcher’ faces a daunting mission bludgeoning Biggs, who underscored his standing as one of the nation’s finest prospects with a brutal first-round belting of Ryan Mitchem last month.

Biggs claimed the 154-pound title with his eighth-round TKO of Dan Hill in July — making him Australia‘s youngest champion — and the 21-year-old Queenslander is primed to slice-and-dice The Butcher.

“I believe in myself and I back myself the whole way,” Biggs said.

“I don’t do the calling out. I’ve got the belt, everyone puts the Tszyu name above the title, which I don’t think is the right thing to do.

Nikita Tszyu has been accused of running scared of Biggs and instead fighting Benjamin Bommber (right) earlier this year.

“Bring it on … hopefully we put on a good show.”

Biggs and Tszyu will go toe-to-toe for the title motivated by a spicy preamble.

The Biggs camp initially agreed terms to fight Nikita in February, only for Tszyu’s promoters No Limit to pull the pin and match the 25-year-old with Benjamin Bommber, whom he blasted out in the first round.

That sparked suggestions Nikita was running scared of Biggs, a sentiment fuelled by their sparring sessions last year in which the ‘Beaudesert Storm’ dropped Tszyu 3.0 in his formative months as a professional.

But Nikita is no longer a total greenhorn. He underlined his toughness by prevailing in a bloody six-round war with Brubaker that prompted his manager Glen Jennings to declare Nikita could one day win a world title.

For now, he will settle for the Australian belt once owned, and since misplaced, by brother Tim.

“I don’t even know where my Australian title is,” Tim said. “I was asking my grandpa where it is, because he usually grabs them, but he doesn’t know where it is.

Nikita’s older brother Tim previously held the Australian super welterweight title after his defeat of Joel Camilleri in 2019.

“Grandpa put it somewhere and he doesn’t know where it is.

“So I guess Nikita’s gotta try and win it and keep it so we’ve at least got one in the family.”

Nikita recently returned from a training camp in Thailand, and Tim hopes he stayed away from eating snake hearts and other bizarre foods like he did during his preparation to fight Brubaker.

“I think he’s started to learn that maybe eating horse testicles isn’t the best idea,” Tim said.

“He’s special, that guy.”

Biggs’ trainer Justin O’Leary said the Nikita Tszyu hype train is about to be derailed in spectacular fashion.

“Just about everyone else who has fought Nikita … deep down they didn’t believe they could win,” O’Leary said.

“Maybe Benjamin Bommber thought he could win, but I know this — Dylan believes he will win.

“Dylan is a very good fighter and above all he is humble. We are not arrogant. We have never called out Nikita.

“They offered to make the fight and we said, ‘No worries’.

“This is the biggest opportunity of Dylan’s career and I know he has the mindset and the talent to beat Nikita.”

Originally published as Nikita Tszyu vs Dylan Biggs: Sparring session knockdown behind Australian title fight