Nikita Tszyu has vowed to put on a spectacular showing ahead of his pay-per-view encounter with Jack Brubaker on Wednesday (August 23) at the Hordern Pavilion, Sydney.
The younger brother of soon to be WBO world super-welterweight champion, Tim and son of former unified super-light world champion Kostya, is hoping to follow in his brother’s footsteps and secure an early night against Brubaker on Wednesday night in Sydney.
Tim and Brubaker came to blows in the ring back in December of 2019 with Tim forcing the corner of Brubaker to withdraw their fighter in round four of the scheduled twelve round contest. Nikita, is vowing to do the same and live up to his ring moniker “The Butcher.”
As the pair faced off in front of the cameras, Tszyu – at the instruction of Tim – told Brubaker that this fight would be his last.
“I was just telling him, ‘This is going to be your final fight, this is going to be your retirement, your last time in the sport … so enjoy it while it lasts,’” Tszyu told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“I told him, ‘I’m your grim reaper’. It feels good. That’s why I have my hood on right now. I feel like the grim reaper. I’m channeling that energy. I just need my scythe and I’m there.”
“I intend to put a huge beating on him,” Tszyu said. This is an individual sport and I want to cause as much damage as possible.”
The brothers have had to endure a sparring ban from their grandfather, Boris, predominantly due to the counterproductive nature of their sessions which saw Nikita suffer a broken nose ahead of his encounter with Darkon Dryden last year.
However, that ban is set to be lifted with Nikita relishing the prospect of facing his brother in the controlled conditions of sparring and learn from Tim as Nikita complimented his brother as a masterclass boxer.
“He possesses the kind of skill that you can’t get from other sparring partners,” Nikita said of Tim.
“He’s a masterclass of a fighter. Hopefully he gets a southpaw opponent so I can give him some help as well, so it’s not so one-sided.
“I’m still not ready to go with him, but you’ve gotta dive into the deep end. The way my father taught us how to swim and hopefully we’d float.
“The way we were taught how to ski was he took us to the top of a mountain, without ever touching snow, and we had to get down ourselves. It took us five hours to get down but we got down and learned how to ski. That’s how we learned. That’s the mentality.”
