Not many people would thank their older brother for licking blood off of their boxing gloves but then again, Nikita Tszyu is unlike most.
Ringside for his big brother Tim’s world title showdown against Sebastian Fundora that descended into a bloodbath from the third round onwards, Nikita did everything he could to will his sibling on.
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“I just kept telling myself, repeating these words, ‘You’re a warrior, you’re an absolute warrior, Tim,’” Tszyu told the No Limit Boxing Podcast.
“Kind of like telepathically trying to communicate with him.”
Ultimately Tim would fall agonisingly short against Fundora as a nasty cut on his forehead obscured his vision for 10 rounds.
Even though Nikita had an immense “sense of pride” at watching his brother endure “so much hardship” only to keep walking Fundora down, it was a post-fight act from Tim that encapsulates why the younger Tszyu is, well, just wired differently.
“I was jealous (of Tim losing blood),” Tszyu said.
“But at the end of the fight, he cut his gloves and he licked it. And I was like, ‘F*** yeah, thank you, you did it for me.’”
It is an anecdote that goes only a small way to explaining the wild side of the Nikita Tszyu who, in a wide-ranging interview on the No Limit Boxing Podcast, discusses his days as a high school “menace”, his hit list for 2024 and the food combination that he likened to “an orgasm”.
‘Aroused’ Nikita wants to ‘stain ring’ | 01:34
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NIKITA, THE HIGH SCHOOL ‘MENACE’
Anyone who entered high school with a brother in the years above will know it was almost like a cheat code.
If someone dared to mess with you on the playground, there was a raft of older boys ready to teach that individual a harsh lesson.
Nikita enjoyed that very experience when he entered Year 7 at Newington College as Tim was in Year 10 at the time.
“He was doing boxing at the time, so no-one would really mess with him,” Tszyu said.
“Then I come in as a cheeky little kid who saw an opportunity to just have fun with everything. And with having a big brother that’s also a fighter, no-one tends to mess with you.
“And that also gave me more of an opportunity to mess with other people and not have any repercussions. So my early years at school, I was a menace.”
Nikita was suspended four times from Year 7 to 9 and it’s no thanks to Tim who, along with his mates, got his baby brother “into egging people’s houses” and spitting the pearls from bubble tea at people.
“Yeah, I got kicked out of a lot of shopping centres because we’d stand at the top of where you can see in-between each of the levels, and just shoot (pearls) at people from different levels,” Tszyu said.
“And they (people) can’t really do anything because we’re like two levels above.”
It’s just as well Nikita was not hurling some of the foods he’d forced himself to eat in recent times at unsuspecting shoppers.
Nikita v Creati – Full Press Conference | 21:41
NIKITA, THE CHEF CREATING FOOD ‘ORGASMS’
For Tszyu’s Instagram followers, the man dubbed ‘The Butcher’ is constantly posting pictures of his tasty meals.
However, he hasn’t shared much regarding his latest culinary discovery: steak and grilled pineapple.
“When you pair a steak and a grilled pineapple, the balance of those two flavours, it’s like an orgasm,” Tszyu said.
“It takes you to a new world. I remember trying it for the first time. So we started doing it in America, in Vegas. And it’s a must now.”
Those who have followed his journey will also know about the staggering revelations of what his diet consisted of ahead of his bout against Darkon Dryden in October 2022.
He’d chow down on raw liver once a week and pledged to slowly incorporate spleen, heart and bull’s testicles into his diet.
At the time, Tszyu lived up to his moniker of being ‘The Butcher’ by consuming these foods.
But now, he considers the raw organs “the worst stuff I’ve probably put in my mouth”.
“They’re putrid,” Tszyu said.
“I did it for the health benefits. There’s lot of vitamins in it and it’s just a very beneficial food.
“The raw stuff, it’s just nasty. Liver is definitely the worst for me.”
Instead of needing to eat raw organs whole, one of Tszyu’s sponsors is a company that supplies him with liver, heart, kidney and spleen tablets to save him the gagging.
Tablets or no tablets, Tszyu knows he can’t afford any dietary slip-ups if he is to blast through the names on his 2024 hit list.
NIKITA, AND THE BIG NAMES ON HIS 2024 HIT LIST
On the rare occasions Nikita and Tim spar, it’s never friendly.
In fact, Nikita recalled an earlier sparring session from when Tim began a fight camp expecting to fight Erickson Lubin when he got the better of his older brother.
Unfortunately for the younger sibling, he learned very quickly that beating up Tim was never going to end well.
“He’s already done six rounds and I’m coming in fresh,” Tszyu said.
“And I just felt very sharp on the day. Like, I surprised myself with what I was doing and I got him with a lot of clean shots.
“But then I didn’t think too much about it because the next day my uncle tells me, ‘You’re sparring again on Thursday, but you’re going first this time.’ And I knew that Tim requested it. I just knew it.
“I was like, ‘Far out, I’m screwed now.’ There was just a whole nervousness for the next day. I was like, ‘God damn, I’ve got to go against fresh Tim.’
“He basically came out and messed me up. It was personal.”
Nikita explained the two no longer spar given someone always ends up getting too hurt, but if he can go toe-to-toe with a former super welterweight world champion, then there’s no reason why he can’t target some massive names for 2024.
The 26-year-old takes on “tricky” Italian Danilo Creati at the Hordern Pavilion on April 24 in what will be the former’s first bout of 2024.
Although he enters the contest a heavy favourite, Tszyu knows Creati will be a frustrating opponent to come up against.
“It’s going to be tricky because he’s not a very straightforward person or fighter,” Tszyu said.
“He does things in awkward ways and he’s going to be tricky to try and figure him out. So I don’t see it as a very easy fight because he’s very elusive and unpredictable.
“So yeah, I really have to be on my A-game to be able to catch him.”
Provided Tszyu defends his Australian super welterweight title against the man known as ‘Dash’, he’s got a handful of names already in the crosshairs.
One of which is Koen Mazoudier, who was slated to fight Tszyu but was unable to after suffering an ear injury in his TKO victory over Travis Druce on March 13.
Tszyu believes a fight against Mazoudier would be a “great” one, “because his name has been in my head since the amateur days”.
“He’s more of a textbook fighter, so I like the stylistic aspect of it,” Tszyu said.
“He’s hungry. He’s dedicated himself to improving and I like the way he goes about things. So a fight with him will be enjoyable.”
Another potential opponent Tszyu wants is a man that dropped his older brother, Wade Ryan.
The Gunnedah product is, like the younger Tszyu, a southpaw and fighting someone of the same stance is something Nikita would “quite like”.
“And he’s (Ryan) tough as well, there would be a lot of punches thrown,” Tszyu said.
Tszyu also wants the head of Brock Jarvis, who has not fought since March 8 last year after undergoing two major operations.
Jarvis first made headlines as a bantamweight (53.3kg) but is now campaigning in any division from welterweight (67kg) to middleweight (72.5kg), a staggering leap rarely seen in professional boxing.
And Tszyu would be more than happy to welcome Jarvis to the super welterweight division.
“Bring it on, bring it on, Brock,” Tszyu said.
When asked how a fight between those two would go, Tszyu responded bluntly: “Similar to how him and Liam Paro went, but maybe even more devastating”.
There’s also one name that has long been linked with the Tszyu family: Michael Zerafa.
The Victorian was brutally stopped in his WBA middleweight world title fight against Erislandy Lara on the Tszyu v Fundora undercard.
But if Zerafa thought he could rebuild by taking on the younger Tszyu, he should have other ideas.
“I reckon he (Zerafa) should just retire by this point,” Tszyu said.
“I don’t see any interest in that fight.”
Before Nikita can get through the rest of his hit list, he must first handle the wily customer that is Creati.
After that, bigger things await ‘The Butcher’.
And he’ll do it all with the exact same personality that made him a “menace” back in high school.
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