Nikita Tszyu has detailed the “ritual” he undergoes to be ready for fight night and therefore his opponent on Wednesday, Oscar Diaz.
The junior middleweight, at the Newcastle Entertainment Centre in Newcastle, Australia, enters his first fight since the anticlimax of January’s no contest with Michael Zerafa that was intended to launch his career.
Spain’s Diaz, 25, unquestionably represents a lower-profile opponent and Wednesday’s date is a lower-profile occasion, but the spiritual Tszyu regardless recognises in it another opportunity to continue to perfect his craft, and the identity that he considers as important to his hopes of success.
Tszyu, 28, shaved his hair after Monday’s final press conference in preparation for Tuesday’s weigh-in, by when his final weight cut ensured that, above all else, he is psychologically ready to fight.
The Australian’s aggression has, so far, above all else perhaps proven his greatest strength, and it is that that he is also nurturing in the final days and hours before he fights.
“You need it,” he told BoxingScene. “It’s a profession that requires you to go into a completely different state of mind. I can’t have that same framework when I’m just walking around the local streets; to cafes. I can’t be thinking the [same] way I’m thinking when I go into the ring.
“I like the shaving – even just the ritual behind it. It feels like I’m going into battle. That’s my family-man hair; my daughter loves grabbing my hair, so it was hard to shave it off then, but Papa’s gotta go to work. He needs it gone.
“The shaving of the head is like a ritual for me. I do it myself, and it just puts me in the [right] state of mind. Physically, my body also changes in that last week; the weight cut brings out some aggression; brings out some energy inside of you, and it all culminates to the fight night.
“The weight cut is a physical transformation as well. Especially in that last week.
“I can feel a different energy going through me. In that last week I also separate myself from my family. I like to get away from the comforts and the love that I’m constantly experiencing day to day, and it’s ritualistic – people going out to battle, and going away from their families, and I’m just trying to tap in to that.
“I only started shaving my head a year-and-a-half ago. For two, three fights. I just shaved it with my brother [Tim] when we went to our camp in America. I was always afraid of shaving my hair, for some reason; I was attached to it; I always had long hair. It was at that point I finally was able to let go, and I felt like I was a soldier. Stripping away from caring about what your physical appearance is completely practical. Hair has no purpose. ‘Get rid of it.’
“My wife [also Nikita] actually loved it, and would sometimes help me shave my hair – we would just do it in the backyard. She likes the change that she sees as well. I wouldn’t necessarily always do it just for fights; I’d just do it just to cut my hair. It’s a beautiful ritual.”
Asked about the 16-fight, undefeated Diaz, who will be fighting outside of his home country for the first time, Tszyu responded: “He’s a very dangerous fighter. He’s definitely gonna come forward, and he can be a little bit elusive; a little bit tricky. But I still believe that I have the tools to be able to beat him.
“We did a few little studies at the start of the preparation – gaining an understanding of what he does. Our main focus is doing things that we’re doing well so far. Punches that have been landing in sparring; punches that we see; we’re building up a library of different strengths, and these are things that I haven’t been able to fully show yet in my fights, but they’ve been working in sparring.
“He opens himself up a little bit sometimes. He tends to throw some lazy punches, and I’m going to try and capitalise on that.”
Wednesday’s contest will, like the all-Australian grudge match with Zerafa, be broadcast on pay-per-view. The victory he hoped for in January in Brisbane, until Zerafa so controversially withdrew when insisting that a cut meant that he could no longer see, would have committed him to being a world-level fighter after only 12 fights in what represents the world’s most competitive weight division.
For all of his ambition he tempers the disappointment of that occasion with the optimism that comes with detecting an opportunity to be more ready for that eventual step in up class and ability. It is, perhaps, a different side of the spiritual edge that meant he so strongly juxtaposed and potentially unnerved Zerafa in January, and an extension of the individual streak that means that unliked his celebrated brother he continues to work with his manager Glenn Jennings and uncle and trainer Igor Goloubev, and has ultimately fallen out with Tim.
“I don’t get involved in the business side of things,” he said, having weighed in 153lbs on Tuesday – 0.5lbs heavier than Diaz. “I’m hardly on social media. I’ve been lacking on the promoting side of things.
“From what I’ve heard from my promoters [No Limit] and my manager it’s about building. I’ve only had 11 fights. I need to build up more experience; build up more rounds, and build up more skills. It’s not a race. I’ll get there eventually. We trust the process.
“Defensive [skills]; offensive. My lack of discipline at times. I need to fine-tune the entire system.
“I’m not disappointed by [taking a step down again]. It was meant to happen this way. I like to think that there’s a reason why. I wasn’t meant to get that victory yet. I wasn’t meant to have that breakout moment yet. There’s still other steps that we’ve got to take care of before we reach that attention and level. I see it as a blessing, and communicated that to my team, and that’s how we move forward.
“I zoned out of it quite quickly. I got over it. I realised if it’s out of your control, then there’s no point putting your energy into it. I just knew that there’s more work to be done, and a brighter future ahead of us.”
