SYDNEY — Two highly anticipated fights. Two rounds. Two results. Wednesday evening’s blockbuster No Limit card may have failed to deliver on the hype it had generated as both Nikita Tszyu and Michael Zerafa were — put kindly — largely untroubled. The high profile Australian pair won in utterly dominant fashion to make it painfully clear they must share a ring in the near future.<\/p>\n
Tszyu (11-0, 9 KOs) schooled undefeated Macedonian challenger Lulzim Ismaili for a full three minutes at the ICC Sydney Theatre, first showcasing his patience, then his brutal body attacks to send his opponent crashing to the canvas, clutching his stomach in agony.<\/p>\n
Ismaili managed to hang on to hear the round one closing bell but failed to rise from his stool for the second frame, forcing the referee to wave off the contest, handing Tszyu the WBO Inter-Continental Super Welterweight title as the Sydneysider threw his hat into the ring for a major fight in 2026.<\/p>\n
Michael Zerafa celebrates winning against Mikey Dahlman\u00a0Matt King\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
The son of Kostya and brother of Tim was fighting for the first time in almost a year, having finally recovering from multiple left hand surgeries following his stoppage of Koen Mazoudier last August, one of the fights of 2024. He, and his camp, weren’t sure how the left paw would hold up, but he showed no signs of rust or tentativeness in the one round of action.<\/p>\n
“I’m back after a year,” declared Tszyu in the aftermath of his latest victory. “Line them up. I don’t care [who I fight next]. I’ll take whoever on.”<\/p>\n
Tszyu’s impressive performance came just 25 minutes after Zerafa (33-5 21 KOs) had prevailed in a one-sided bout of his own. The controversial Melburnian humiliated American Mikey Dahlman inside two minutes to capture the WBO Inter-Continental Middleweight title, proving yet again he’s much more than just one of the sport’s biggest trash talkers.<\/p>\n
Dahlman barely fired a shot in a fight that will no doubt raise eyebrows as to whether it should have ever gone ahead. But take nothing away from Zerafa, who excelled for the two minutes he was required to box.<\/p>\n
The rumour mill has been running overtime this week, with speculation a comfortable victory for Tszyu could land him a fight in Las Vegas next year on a card that would line up with the NRL’s preseason Sin City showcase. Fox Sports reported earlier in the week that opponents for the potential bout include Evan Holyfield, the son of heavyweight icon, Evander, Shane Moseley Jnr, Antonio Tarver Jnr, as well as Nico Ali Walsh, the grandson of Muhammad Ali.<\/p>\n
Nikita Tszyu and Michael Zerafa headline a blockbuster Sydney boxing card.\u00a0ESPN\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Before then, it’s highly likely Tszyu fights once more in Australia later this year. Long-time rival Zerafa now looms as the obvious contender. Zerafa has previously stated that if he was to fight a Tszyu, it would be former world champion Tim, not Nikita, though with Tim likely heading for a mini hiatus following losses in three of his past four appearances, Zerafa may now have little choice but to fight the younger of the brothers if he’s to further his career.<\/p>\n
The other name that’s been thrown around as a potential Tszyu opponent Down Under is Brock Jarvis, who has recently moved up five weight classes in a bid to face the undefeated son of a champion. Jarvis, trained by Australian icon Jeff Fenech, bounced back from his defeat to American Keith Thurman in March with a fourth-round stoppage of rising New Zealander Sam Beck on Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n
No Limit has its work cut out to determine who gets a crack at Tszyu next.<\/p>\n
Here’s how fight night in Sydney unfolded:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SYDNEY — Two highly anticipated fights. Two rounds. Two results. Wednesday evening’s blockbuster No Limit card may have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-83751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}