{"id":348596,"date":"2025-12-15T01:42:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T01:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/348596\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T01:42:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T01:42:12","slug":"david-nyika-vs-wuzhati-nuerlang-fight-lexy-thornberry-cancer-battle-interview-video-highlights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/348596\/","title":{"rendered":"David Nyika vs Wuzhati Nuerlang fight, Lexy Thornberry cancer battle, interview, video, highlights"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Nyika fought back tears in an emotional interview after dedicating his latest victory to his cancer-stricken fianc\u00e9e.<\/a><\/p>\n

The New Zealand cruiserweight boxer<\/a> outclassed journeyman Wuzhati Nuerlang of China in a unanimous points win in his adopted home town of Gatton.<\/p>\n

Nyika is now based in the rural Queensland town where he trains under respected boxing coach Noel Thornberry.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Green lifts the lid on ’embarrassing’ moment<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Indian fans riot as Messi cuts appearance short<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Who’s gone and who should be? AFL’s startling shake-up<\/a><\/p>\n

\"David<\/p>\n

David Nyika after his victory.\u00a0Stan<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old is engaged to Thornberry’s daughter, Lexy, who was diagnosed with head and neck cancer six weeks ago and was not at the fight.<\/p>\n

“The last six weeks have been hell,” Nyika said on Stan Sport’s coverage.<\/p>\n

“Lexy, you have been my source of strength and courage. We’ll get through this \u2013 I tell you every day that you are the light of my life.”<\/p>\n

\"David<\/p>\n

David Nyika after his win.\u00a0Stan<\/p>\n

Nyika, an Olympic bronze medallist, moved to 12-1 as a professional and showed off his range of skills by switching between orthodox and southpaw stances during the fight.<\/p>\n

He has been deeply touched by the support from the Gatton community.<\/p>\n

“I recognise everybody in the crowd tonight and your support has been amazing. This is what makes Gatton, Gatton,” Nyika said.<\/p>\n

\"David<\/p>\n

David Nyika with his supporters.\u00a0Stan<\/p>\n

It was the tough but limited Nuerlang’s fifth loss in 24 fights.<\/p>\n

“Full credit to him for bringing a good fight. He could have turned up and fallen over but he put an amazing effort in and I thank him for that,” Nyika said.<\/p>\n

Lexy, a 24-year-old former Love Island Australia star, expressed her pride before the fight.<\/p>\n

\"Lexi<\/p>\n

Lexi Thornberry and David Nyika.\u00a0Instagram<\/p>\n

“In four years, I haven’t missed a single fight of Dave’s and tomorrow night he will be fighting five minutes away from home and I won’t be able to attend #chemo,” she wrote on Instagram.<\/p>\n

“Even though I won’t be there, I’ll be cheering him on all the same… the last five weeks leading up to this fight our entire world has been flipped upside down.<\/p>\n

“So many appointments, surgeries and heartbreaking news. It has been the most mentally challenging time in both of our lives and I can’t even describe how proud I am that he is getting in that ring tomorrow and fighting.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Nyika fought back tears in an emotional interview after dedicating his latest victory to his cancer-stricken fianc\u00e9e.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-348596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}