‘Not fair to call him out’: How an Italian pumpkin picker joined the Nikita Tszyu sweepstakes

A year after taking on the undisputed bad boy of Australian boxing, and several summers since throwing down against drunk pumpkin pickers for fun, Danilo Creati has officially entered the Nikita Tszyu sweepstakes.

Despite having once told Fox Sports Australia it would be “unfair” for him to call out the youngest Tszyu sibling, 34-year-old Creati is now readying to do exactly that on Wednesday night’s No Limit on Fox card.

While it has now been 16 months since his contentious decision loss against Michael ‘Pretty Boy’ Zerafa, the Italian is looking to win his way into a shock Australian title shot against New Zealander Marcus Heywood.

BOXING: Tszyu v Thurman & Zerafa v Lara live from Las Vegas | SUN 31 MAR 11AM AEDT | Exclusive to Main Event, order on Kayo Sports. No Kayo subscription needed.

Should Creati defeat Heywood in the Moore Park headliner, he will then go into the ‘Tszyu sweepstakes’ with a handful of other fighters – most notably Koen Mazoudier, who is himself coming off an impressive stoppage win against Travis Druce.

Living and training in Sydney, Creati shocked the Aussie boxing scene back in November 2022 with his strong showing against Zerafa on a card that also doubled as Paul Gallen’s heavyweight boxing farewell.

While Zerafa won convincingly on all three scorecards – 98-93, 99-91 and 98-92 – and is now readying for a world title shot, his underdog Italian rival proved incredibly awkward over 10 rounds, and off the back of upsetting Olympian Cameron Hammond.

After moving up a weight class on three weeks notice to take the fight, Creati told Fox Sports afterwards that he planned a return to that stacked super welterweight division where the Tszyu boys live.

“And Nikita Tszyu, that would be a nice fight,” said Creati, whose record sits at 8-1.

“Although it’s not really fair for me to call him out.

“He has fewer fights than me.

“So I have to keep honour, wait for him to call me.

“But I took on Zerafa, a world number one, with three weeks notice — so I would take the Tszyu fight tomorrow.

“Obviously they are taking care of him and moving him up.

“So after my performance against Zerafa, maybe they won’t put me in there with him.

“Even in my weight category, there may be no opponents for me in Australia.”

Yet in the time that Creati has sat idle, Tszyu has fought and won four times against an increasingly impressive list of opponents – Bo Belbin, Ben Bommber, Jack Brubaker and the nation’s youngest champ, Dylan Biggs.

Certainly a Tszyu showdown would be welcomed by the now adopted Aussie who first arrived Down Under alone, speaking little English and expecting to stay here on vacation for only a few weeks.

But that was almost a decade ago.

Initially, the visiting Creati worked construction, in cleaning, even as a kitchen hand and barista, before shifting up to Bowen, North Queensland – where he picked both pumpkins and rock melons in 40 degree heat.

Then after work was done, and usually over a few beers in the evenings, he would throw down which whichever workers were game enough.

“Travelling around Australia, I still carried boxing gloves with me,” he told us prior to the Zerafa showdown.

“And so on the farm, I started fighting other pickers.

“Mostly, the fights would happen when the guys were drunk.

“That’s when they had the most courage.

“All up I probably had a dozen fights.”

Asked how many he won, Creati continued with a laugh: “All of them.

“But I’d just play.

“While I dropped some of the people, I was also taking care of them too.

“It was punches to the liver, punches to the stomach, never anything to the face.

“Because these were people I was living and working with. People who became like family.

“So I was always dropping them with care.”

Ironically, Zerafa is also now in final preparations for his first fight since the Creati headliner – with the Melburnian based in Las Vegas where he is set to face WBA middleweight champ Erislandy Lara later this month.

In a huge event for Australian boxing, Zerafa will fight on the same card as long-time arch rival Tim Tszyu, with the WBO super welterweight champ challenging American Keith Thurman in the blockbuster main event at T-Mobile Arena.