Nikita Tszyu was forced to take himself off the canvas to eliminate his arch-rival Dylan Biggs in the toughest fight of his career.
The new Australian super welterweight champion now says he is ready for the bright lights of Las Vegas, following world champion older brother Tim Tszyu to the United States.
“It’s a beautiful feeling, I’ve been imagining this moment, imagining how it would go,” he told the crowd with the belt around his waist.
Tszyu was knocked down in the first round before scoring a big finish in the fifth, admitting he is a slow starter and needs to take a few hits to get going.
“He was there like a wall for me to climb over,” he said of Biggs, but revealed how he changed his game plan to get the decisive knockout.
‘When my shot started to land. I noticed he was being gassed… trying to hit me with shots from a distance. I had to set traps for him and hit him as he attacked.”
When asked what’s next, he laughed and said, “Vegas, baby!” as he looked at his brother Tim.
“My heart was beating pretty fast,” Tim admitted of how he felt when Nikita was knocked down. He suggested that his younger brother next face Tony Harrison, the man he knocked out in Sydney.
More to follow.