{"id":80226,"date":"2025-08-19T15:32:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T15:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/80226\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T15:32:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T15:32:14","slug":"star-boxer-nikita-tszyu-reveals-the-troubling-reason-he-quit-his-old-life-as-a-white-collar-worker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/80226\/","title":{"rendered":"Star boxer Nikita Tszyu reveals the troubling reason he quit his old life as a white-collar worker"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nikita Tszyu has revealed that a \u2018spiritual experience\u2019, where he realised that he enjoyed \u2018inflicting pain and being a little devil\u2019, was the reason behind why he opted to quit his job in architecture and instead pursue a full-time career in boxing.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old Australian is set to make his return to the ring on Wednesday night following a year-long hiatus. The 10-0 southpaw is set to square off against Macedonian fighter Lulzim Ismaili, aged 28, at the ICC Sydney<\/a> Theatre.<\/p>\n

Tszyu, who is the younger brother of Aussie star Tim Tszyu and the son of former world champion Kostya, had previously pursued a career with international architectural firm Woods Bagot.<\/p>\n

As a youngster, it looked as though Nikita would follow his dad and brother into the sport, impressing as a junior fighter before opting to quit at the age of 16 to pursue a career in architecture. He\u2019d later gain a Bachelor\u2019s degree in Architectural Design at the University of Technology Sydney.<\/p>\n

But he would feel unfulfilled by the line of work.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019ve never spoken about this before, but I had a spiritual experience that showed me my true desires in life,\u2019 the fighter told The Courier Mail<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Nikita <\/p>\n

Nikita Tszyu has revealed that a \u2018spiritual experience\u2019, where he realise that he enjoyed \u2018inflicting pain and being a little devil\u2019, was the reason behind why he opted to quit his job in architecture<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The 27-year-old Australian (left) is set to make his return to the ring on Wednesday night following a year-long hiatus as he takes on\u00a0Lulzim Ismaili (right)<\/p>\n

\"Nikita <\/p>\n

Nikita (bottom left, with his dad Kostya and brother Tim) began working as an architect, but realised that it was no longer fulfilling\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018It was a vision of pain and suffering, darkness and evil thoughts.<\/p>\n

\u2018At that stage of my life, it was showing me the things I desired most in life, and that was inflicting pain and being a little devil.<\/p>\n

\u2018It was essentially the feelings I get from boxing.<\/p>\n

\u2018So I knew I\u2019d regret it for the rest of my life if I didn\u2019t pursue boxing while I still could.\u2019<\/p>\n

Nikita explained that boxing has provided him with a way to deal with those dark thoughts, adding that he didn\u2019t know where they came from.<\/p>\n

\u2018Boxing is the legal way to unleash it,\u2019 the fighter added.<\/p>\n

But he is OK if he doesn\u2019t win world titles. In fact, Nikita explained that he wants to use boxing, and his dark thoughts, to help provide for his family.<\/p>\n

\u2018Once boxing is done, my plan is to have that side of me released through being on a farm with animals and out in the wilderness.<\/p>\n

\"Tszyu <\/p>\n

Tszyu (left) had revealed that it was his ‘dark thoughts’ that saw him realised he wanted to return to professional fighting\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018I want to use that darkness to feed my family.\u2019<\/p>\n

Nikita, who revealed last week that he had been eating his wife\u2019s placenta and drinking her breast milk in a bid to ingest more vitamins, last fought in August 2024, where he bested Koen Mazoudier at the ICC Exhibition Centre in Sydney.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, should he win on Wednesday night in Sydney, there is talk that he could headline a fight card in Las Vegas on the same weekend as the NRL\u2019s opening round extravaganza in Sin City in 2026.<\/p>\n

It is an opportunity that excites the 27-year-old fighter, but what\u2019s even more enticing is that he could come up against heavyweight great Evander Holyfield\u2019s son, Evan, among several other big names.<\/p>\n

Those include Shane Moseley Jnr, Antonio Tarver Jnr and Nico Ali Walsh – who is the grandson of Muhammad Ali.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s according to Fox Sports<\/a>, who claim the idea had initially been to have his older brother Tim headline the event.<\/p>\n

Nikita branded the news \u2018perfect\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u2018Already having so many Australians there in Las Vegas, the atmosphere would be electric,\u2019 Nikita said.<\/p>\n

\"Reports <\/p>\n

Reports now claim that Nikita (right) could be set to fight in Las Vegas on the same weekend that the NRL’s opening round extravaganza could take place in Sin City<\/p>\n

‘Right now, I’m taking each fight as it comes.<\/p>\n

‘And I do have to take care of business here before heading overseas.<\/p>\n

‘But what I like is new experiences.<\/p>\n

‘And being able to experience something that the greatest boxers in the world do \u2013 fighting in Las Vegas, the pinnacle \u2013 it’s something I would absolutely love.<\/p>\n

‘That’s definitely the goal.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nikita Tszyu has revealed that a \u2018spiritual experience\u2019, where he realised that he enjoyed \u2018inflicting pain and being…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80227,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,100,2623,588,85],"class_list":["post-80226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-dailymail","tag-las-vegas","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80226","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=80226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}