Nikita Tszyu Shifts Focus to America After Controversial Draw
Nikita Tszyu has changed his mind. Now he’s changing his plans.
A month on from his controversial draw with countryman Ben Mahoney in Brisbane, the super-welterweight insists he should have had his hand raised — and says he’s finally ready to take his career to America.
From “I lost” to “I won”
On the night, Tszyu did something almost unheard of in boxing. As the scorecards came back split and messy, the 29-year-old admitted he thought he’d been beaten.
Mahoney celebrated like a new world champion, dancing around the ring as if he’d pulled off the upset of his life. Tim Tszyu bristled at the display, and Mahoney’s camp howled robbery.
Then the dust settled. The replays rolled. And Nikita’s view shifted.
"I'm not a very good judge," he admitted after revisiting the fight. "I scored it 7-3. In a good way, 8-4. I thought I won the majority of the middle rounds. I gave him the first two rounds and the last two rounds, but [I won] everything else in between.
"I don't regret it, because it was what I felt at the time."
The record still shows a draw. Tszyu still hasn’t been beaten. And in his mind, the Mahoney fight has become something else entirely: a lesson and a launchpad.
Growing pains, bigger ambitions
Tszyu, now 12-1-0 with 10 knockouts, has long been built carefully, his team refusing to rush him into the deep end of a brutal division. Domestic tests, gradual steps, no shortcuts.
He believes those days are almost over.
The “Sydney slayer” wants his next chapter to be written in the United States, the stage that has both made and scarred the Tszyu name in recent years. Tim relinquished his IBO super-welterweight belt there to Sebastian Fundora, then endured a punishing rematch loss and another world-title beating at the hands of Bakhram Murtazaliev.
Nikita has watched it all. And he still wants in.
"I think I can figure it out," he told AAP. "This fight was a great learning curve for me and it puts things a lot into perspective. I've got to be a lot more professional with the way I do things."
That self-critique cuts deeper than tactics or punch selection.
"I can't be landscaping close to the fight. I can't be doing woodworking close to the fight. Just some bad habits I do.
"Yeah, I've got to be a professional athlete."
The message is clear: the hobbyist mindset is over. If America is calling, the side projects are out.
America on the horizon
No Limit Boxing is already working on the next move. The plan, if all the pieces fall into place, is to slide Tszyu onto the undercard of the David Benavidez–Michal Cieslak unified blockbuster in Phoenix, Arizona, on December 12.
That would be his first taste of a major US show, a chance to test not only his skills but his temperament on foreign soil, under brighter lights and harsher scrutiny.
If that opportunity slips away, No Limit has locked in at least one more outing for Tszyu in 2026 on home turf. The momentum will not stall.
He remains undefeated, still learning, still adjusting his own verdicts as he goes. The next time he leaves a ring, in Australia or in America, he won’t want the judges — or his own conscience — to be in any doubt.
