{"id":378487,"date":"2026-04-14T05:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T05:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/378487\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T05:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T05:38:09","slug":"david-nyika-set-for-ibf-eliminator-fight-for-world-cruiserweight-shot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/378487\/","title":{"rendered":"David Nyika set for IBF eliminator fight for world cruiserweight shot"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cBoth [Nyika and Masson] have confirmed in writing their willingness to participate in an eliminator bout,\u201d the IBF letter states. \u201cAccordingly, the IBF is ordering an elimination contest between these two contenders to determine the mandatory challenger for the No 1 position in the division.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe winner of this bout will be designated as the No 1 contender and the mandatory challenger. All negotiations must be concluded by April 28, 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nyika, the two-time Commonwealth Games gold and Olympic bronze medallist, trains under Noel Thornberry in Gatton, Queensland.<\/p>\n

Former IBO cruiserweight champion Masson is represented by Angelo Di Carlo.<\/p>\n

If the teams cannot reach an agreement on whether the fight will be staged in New Zealand or Australia and the respective payments for the bout, the IBF will order a purse bid.<\/p>\n

Nyika suffered his only knockout defeat in his last world title shot against Opetaia in January last year. He has since registered two comeback victories, against experienced Kiwi Nikolas Charalampous and China\u2019s Wuzhati Nuerlang, but has devoted much of his recent time to supporting fiancee Lexy Thornberry as she battles head and neck cancer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With Thornberry having recently completed chemotherapy, Nyika is intent on returning to the ring to pursue his world title dreams.<\/p>\n

Nyika\u2019s manager David Higgins will now attempt to bring the world title eliminator to New Zealand.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the job at hand. In boxing, Don King said what makes money makes sense. A fight tends to land where money is the greatest,\u201d Higgins said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Masson team will be looking at staging it in Brisbane, Australia. <\/p>\n

\u201cJeff Horn fought at Suncorp Stadium and Jai Opetaia fought at the Casino on the Gold Coast. They\u2019ll be running around talking to sponsors, government trying to mount a promotion on home soil. Our job, with the Nyika team, is to try and stage the fight in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe IBF has given us until the end of the month to make a deal on where, when the fight is and the money. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf no deal can be made they\u2019ll order a purse bid which is like an auction for a house. We put a blind tender in and whoever bids the most wins the right to promote and stage the fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best thing for David Nyika would be to fight in New Zealand. We\u2019re hard at work looking at how we can make that happen. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt will take a family of commercial partners and sponsors. It would probably be the second biggest fight in New Zealand history after Joseph Parker\u2019s fight against Andy Ruiz. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got an Olympian in David Nyika at the peak of his powers against Floyd Masson who is a proper athlete. He looks like Conor McGregor but a bit bigger. It would be a meaningful world-wide boxing event on global television.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Nyika can beat Masson, which I think he can, he\u2019s guaranteed a world title shot which could also happen in New Zealand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the heavy emotional toll and limited recent boxing Nyika has endured while supporting Thornberry, Higgins dismissed the risk of this fight being too much too soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur hearts go out to David and the Thornberry family, they\u2019re great friends of mine. It\u2019s been a tough time for David, Lexy and the family but David is a professional boxer and he wants to be world champion. He wants to take this opportunity and prove what he can do. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe must remember when David fought Jai for the world title, it was on a few weeks\u2019 notice. This time, he\u2019s having another run at it and leaving no stone unturned.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cBoth [Nyika and Masson] have confirmed in writing their willingness to participate in an eliminator bout,\u201d the IBF…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[74,682,2023,1652,101085,197088,31491,6284,197087,197089,15124,2082,197086,1019,12892,111,139,197085,69,19719,8466,1551,10117,213,44093,2563,377],"class_list":{"0":"post-378487","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-after","9":"tag-being","10":"tag-boxing","11":"tag-challenger","12":"tag-contesting","13":"tag-cruiserweight","14":"tag-cusp","15":"tag-david","16":"tag-eliminator","17":"tag-federations","18":"tag-fight","19":"tag-for","20":"tag-ibf","21":"tag-international","22":"tag-mandatory","23":"tag-new-zealand","24":"tag-newzealand","25":"tag-nyika","26":"tag-nz","27":"tag-ordered","28":"tag-second","29":"tag-set","30":"tag-shot","31":"tag-sports","32":"tag-status","33":"tag-title","34":"tag-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}