Legendary trainer Johnny Lewis advised Nikita Tszyu to treat boxing as a game of chess, to wait for the opening rather than seeking that one boss-move.
Tszyu, however, is only prepared to trade pawns for so long. Tszyu has returned to his heavy-handed best, winning a technical knockout decision over local hope Darkon Dryden at the “Tszyucastle” Entertainment Centre.
It was non-stop action from the beginning of the contest to its premature end.Credit:No Limit Boxing
Tszyu’s philosophy, during his first three professional bouts, has been to cop a punch if it means he can give one. It worked well enough in the first two outings, which lasted only a matter of minutes, but came unstuck against Ben Horn. The brother of world title contender Tim Tszyu vowed to play a more patient game against Dryden, but instead engaged in a brutal war.
Darkon landed plenty of quality shots of his own, but copped plenty more and was unable to come out for the fourth round. After pummeling Darkon in the third round, it was check mate.
Tim Tszyu, speaking after the bout, rated his brother’s performance a “10 out of 10″.
Nikita labelled it the best performance of his young career.
“It was a great learning experience for me,” Nikita Tszyu said.
“It’s the most fun I’ve had as well. You feel alive in the ring …. I’ve never been so in tune with myself for the task I had.”
Dryden knows how to make an entrance. The carpenter made his way into the ring wearing a Hannibal Lecter mask and appeared just as menacing once he took it off. Tszyu responded by winking at his opponent and blowing him a kiss.
It was non-stop action from the beginning of the contest to its premature end. Dryden’s father, Joe, said in the lead up: “The more you hit him, the more he comes forward. The more he loves it.”
And so it proved. Dryden copped countless blows to the body and head but never retreated, throwing blows until his minders decided he can take no more,
Darkon landed plenty of quality shots of his own, but copped plenty more.Credit:No Linit Boxing
Despite being the true local – he is from Mayfield – Dryden was made to feel the outsider in more ways than one. The venue is named after his opponent, with the Tszyu family now boasting a combined record of 11 wins from as many appearances (Nikita two wins, Tim two, Kostya seven) in the Steel City.
Sam Goodman, meanwhile, is making a strong case to be considered the most promising Australian boxer without the Tszyu surname.
Fighting just moments before Nikita Tszyu stepped into the ring, Goodman kept his undefeated record intact with a unanimous points victory over Jason Cooper for the WBO Oriental super-bantamweight title.
The latest victory, and the rankings rise that will likely come with it, could result in him achieving his ambition of challenging for a world title within 18 months if he continues on his winning way.
Goodman described Cooper (17-4-1) as a spoiler in the lead up, but the underdog wasn’t able to spoil the party for “The Mad Bunch”, a travelling throng of supporters who follow their man across the country through his professional journey.
Cooper suffered a swollen eye early in proceedings, but punched through the pain, landing several clean blows of his own. However, Goodman was never in trouble and had the judges on his side with a 99-91, 99-91, 100-90 decision.
“He’s real tough, full credit to him,” Goodman said of his opponent.
“In some spots [my performance] was pretty good, it’s all part of the learning process on the way to the top.”
The performance was impressive enough to earn a trip to Las Vegas. Promoters No Limit announced afterwards that Goodman would be invited to be on the undercard of Tim Tszyu’s undisputed world title fight against Jermell Charlo on January 28.
“The ‘Mad Bunch’ will go anywhere and now we’re going to Vegas,” Goodman said to raucous applause from his personal cheer squad.
It was all part of a festival of the fist; 20 fights over the course of 10 hours. There was the obligatory footballer on the undercard, this time seven-club NRL journeyman Richie Fa’aoso. However, the premiership-winning prop was no match for Louis Marsters, with the towel thrown in just before he was saved by the bell in the third round.
In the co-main event, Australian-based Irishman Dennis Hogan has finally succeeded in his quest for a world title, with victory over IBO super-welterweight champion Sam Eggington.
In his fourth title fight, “The Hurricane” did enough to take the belt from Eggerton, with the judges scoring handing him a 114-114, 116-112, 116-112 decision.
“I just kept believing,” Hogan said.
Other highlights included the Lewis-trained Ella Boot outpointing Zoe Putorak and Cody Beeken posting an upset via a split points decision over Lachie Higgins.
