Wednesday, December 17
SYDNEY, Australia – The great and the good of the New South Wales sports scene was present at the TikTok Entertainment Centre to watch Tim Tszyu-Anthony Velazquez, in the latest demonstration of not only Tszyu’s significance in the landscape of a sports-obsessed nation in which boxing is typically peripheral, but also of his promoters No Limit’s influence.
That George and Matt Rose work beyond boxing with, among others, players for the NRL team South Sydney Rabbitohs – who Tszyu supports – contributed to a party of 50 attending on Wednesday evening. Also could be seen was the retired Andrew “Joey” Johns – one of the finest rugby league players ever and therefore one of his profession’s so-called “immortals” – the retired Josh Mansour, and Nelson Asofa-Solomona, who despite being at his physical peak so recently abandoned his NRL career to sign with No Limit to prioritise boxing.
Tasman Fighters’ Mick Francis and his matchmaker Matt Clark were also among those present, in support of their featherweight Tyler Blizzard – whose 10-round contest with Sam Goodman was the finest of the evening – and will likely have left aggrieved at the scores of 100-90, 100-90 and 99-91 in Goodman’s favour because the reality is that those scores were far too wide for so competitive a fight. So, too, was their likeable Irish light heavyweight Conor Wallace, who just as Goodman and Blizzard were in the ring asked BoxingScene’s prediction for the outcome, predicted victory for Goodman on account of his “being a level above”, and then a stoppage for Tszyu inside three rounds, largely on account of Tszyu’s new co-manager Mike Altamura’s expertise.
The 10 bells were observed before Goodman-Blizzard, out of respect for the 16 victims tragically killed at the harrowing terrorist shooting on Sunday evening at nearby Bondi Beach. They followed Callum Peters stopping Cody Beekin in their fight for the vacant Australian middleweight title, and doing so to some controversy, despite Beekin struggling to defend himself and repeatedly being caught cleanly and hurt.
Mansour proved an unusual choice for broadcasters Main Event to attempt to sell the all-Australian grudge match on January 16 between Michael Zerafa and Nikita Tszyu – one, incidentally, expected to attract a bigger crowd than Tszyu-Velazquez – but another reminder of the value of cross-promotion was regardless delivered when Zerafa and Tszyu faced off in the ring.
All that being witnessed, there was little question that Tim Tszyu was again the focal point of the evening and threatens to be an industry unto himself. Pre-fight he had spoken of the “power of the mind” as a consequence of his time under his new trainer Pedro Diaz, and while few of the “angles” Diaz promised could be seen throughout his performance, there existed demonstrations of Diaz’s success in nurturing Tszyu’s mind. Tszyu had consistently spoken like the “rejuvenated” fighter he described himself as and there was not only often more patience once he was in the ring – close to when he would be making his ring walk, instead of him hitting pads and building his heart rate, footage could be seen of he and Diaz sat side by side in his dressing room, apparently deep in thought and, as it is so often described as being, “in the zone”.
In the moments before a big fight it is natural to consider the consequences of the so-called “A side” losing, and, particularly given that Tszyu had lost three of his previous four fights and was being rebuilt in his home city, the extent to which the picture surrounding his career – including for No Limit and Main Event – risks being as finely balanced as a house of cards was pronounced.
When he was introduced in the ring the master of ceremonies then mentioned so many of the lightly regarded titles he has previously won – in an apparent attempt to further build the evening that existed on his broad shoulders – that Apollo Creed’s tongue-in-cheek introduction ahead of his fight with Ivan Drago in Rocky IV was brought to mind.
His performance – inevitably – struggled to match that nature of introduction and prompted as many questions as it did answers, but, as is consistent with one of the most enthralling careers of the past three years, it was again rarely dull.
Post-fight Tszyu spoke of his ambitions for 2026 and potentially of challenging Xander Zayas and in so doing again betrayed an admirable desire and hunger. He also had to check with his wife Alexandra where they are about to go on holiday – the answer was Iceland – and how long for, such had been his commitment to and focus on his pre-fight preparations and latest fight.
