‘Pack your stuff and go’: Chaos surrounds Tszyu title fight as late Vegas change on the cards

Tim Tszyu’s fight team have joined the millions of Americans now paying close attention to the impending devastation set to be caused when Hurricane Milton hits the Florida coastline today – with concerns his IBF title bout may have to be shifted from Orlando, Florida.

It comes as breakout Australian prospect Mateo Tapia has also been evacuated from his Tampa base to Miami – only weeks after his apartment complex flooded and he saw “cars floating down the street” during an earlier, equally devastating, storm, Hurricane Helene.

Tszyu is slated to fight undefeated IBF super welterweight king Bakhram Murtazaliev in Orlando, Florida on Saturday week – or Sunday, October 20 Australian time.

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However, there have been suggestions the fight could potentially be shifted to Las Vegas due to the impending damage being promised by one of the worst hurricanes in US history.

The Category 5 event is due to hit the west coast today, and is considered one of the five worst ever due to having already recorded winds of 390km/hr.

Many towns in the hurricane’s direct path have already been evacuated, while widespread damage is predicted as the storm heads across the State.

Current predictions have the hurricane still holding wind gusts of 200km/hr by the time it hits Orlando with widespread flooding and serious power outages also predicted.

It comes as Tszyu’s good mate and longtime sparring partner Tapia becomes what would have to be the first Australian fighter in history to have his camp thrown into turmoil by not one but two hurricanes.

Now living and training out of St Petersburg, near Tampa, Tapia has been evacuated with thousands of others whose townships are in the path of Milton.

The fighter also spent two days in lockdown when Helene hit a few weeks back.

Speaking with Fox Sports Australia last week, and only just before Milton was identified, Tapia recounted the “scary” couple of days he spent locked down with his wife before eventually emerging from his apartment to find houses gone and “cars floating down the street”.

The fighter quickly added the pair were “incredibly lucky” given the event boasting winds of up to 220km/hr would eventually claim over 120 lives across six states and cause some $150 billion in damages.

“The storm surge was still so wild – crazy,” Tapia said of the weather which hit his town around two o’clock in the morning.

“You could see it come swirling in, too.

“It didn’t hit us directly but still, we felt it.

“We’d had a curfew for two days, couldn’t go outside, and my trainers warned me ‘man, if you’re told to evacuate, you go’.

“It was wild, just how hard the wind was blowing, and how that then affects the rain.

“We came out next day and houses were gone, the beach was gone, there were cars floating down the street, trees were down … it was incredible.”

Tapia said that while his gym was undamaged, some of his sparring and training partners weren’t so lucky.

“One of the guys from the gym is having to start over,” he said.

“He had water come right through his house.

“It’s sad.

“My wife and I are on the third floor in a block of apartments, thankfully, because the first floor was flooded.”

Ironically, Tapia and his wife had only moved to St Petersburg from Los Angeles earlier this year to improve their safety.

“LA was expensive and dangerous,” he says.

“My wife, she couldn’t walk down the road where we lived by herself.

“So my manager, who lives here in Florida, said to me ‘hey, get your arse over here’.

“He explained that it was more affordable, more relaxed, safer …”

The fighter added that even when it came to hurricanes, locals were divided in their views.

“Some locals are incredibly chilled about it all,” he explained. “While others are like ‘pack up your stuff and go’

“My wife and I we’re thinking ‘OK, what do we do here?’

“But we definitely got lucky that’s for sure.”

This time around however, locals have no choice — with thousands of people being evacuated way down south of the State or north into Georgia.

Tszyu is currently based in Las Vegas with his team and promoters No Limit are now waiting to see how much damage Orlando takes before an announcement is made on what will happen next.

Currently on an undefeated run stretching 17 straight fights, Tapia will be looking to push himself closer to a world title shot when he throws down on Tszyu’s upcoming headliner against Murtazaliev.

The card is slated to take place at Orlando’s Caribe Royale Resort on October 20, with Tszyu looking to become a two-time world champion against Murtazaliev, while on the undercard Tapia faces Venezuela’s Endry Saavedra.

Australian fight fans will already be aware of Saavedra (16-1), given back in March he travelled Down Under for a huge upset win over Issac Hardman, finishing the popular Queenslander via shock stoppage in the eighth.

Tapia, meanwhile, fought most recently on the undercard of Nikita Tszyu’s win over Koen Mazoudier – earning a unanimous decision win over another Venezuelan Keiber Gonzalez – before returning to the United States, and his new home base

Born in Mexico and raised on Sydney’s northern beaches, Tapia made his US debut last October – earning a strong stoppage victory over Eric Robles.

The fighter then followed that up with a 10-round decision over Gonzalez in April and now, with the middleweight division wide open, hopes to push himself closer to a world title with a victory over Saavedra.