Nikita Tszyu walked away with the win on August 28, when he faced Koen Mazoudier in the main event at ICC Sydney Theatre. The scheduled for 10 rounds all-Australian battle didn’t go the full distance. Prior to the stoppage, the contest saw an all-out action and success from both super welterweights.
Tszyu defeated Mazoudier by TKO delivering a barrage of punches. After instructing the latter to “punch back” and not seeing much coming in return, referee Chris Condon stepped in to call it a day. The official time was 2 minutes and 5 seconds into the ninth round.
At the time of the stoppage, the scores were 77-75, 78-74 and 77-75 in favor of Tszyu. Mazoudier, however, had later rounds going his way.
With the victory, Nikita Tszyu improved his unbeaten record to 10-0, 8 KOs. In addition, the 26-year-old southpaw landed the vacant WBO Intercontinental and IBF Australasian belts. 28-year-old Koen Mazoudier dropped to 12-4-1, 5 KOs.
“I had to work for that,” Nikita Tszyu said post-fight. “That was not easy. It sucked during the fight, but the feeling right now is indescribable.”
“I take my hat off to Koen. He is one tough bastard. I didn’t expect him to be that hard. I didn’t expect the fight to be that hard.”
“I had to push through and dig deep. This is where strength comes from, pushing through those tough times.”
In the co-main event, former title challenger Michael Zerafa (32-5, 20 KOs) defeated Tommy Browne (45-9-2, 19 KOs) via first-round TKO. The latter retired prior to the start of the second round due to injury to his left arm. The ending of the fight saw some drama with team members entering the ring and a punch was thrown.
Also on the card, Australia-based Conor Wallace (14-1, 10 KOs) of Northern Ireland defeated London-born, New Zealand-based Jerome Pampellone (18-2, 11 KOs) by split decision at light heavyweight. After 12 rounds of their bout for WBO Intercontinental title, the scores were 116-112, 116-112 and 113-115. The contest also served as the IBF title eliminator.
Among other Tszyu vs Mazoudier results, Dharringarra Trewhella (4-0, 1 KOs) defeated Calvin Jensen (3-1) by unanimous decision (58-56 x3) at welterweight. Also at welterweight, Billy Polkinghorn (3-0,1 KOs) scored a unanimous decision (50-45 x2 and 49-46) against Michael Reynolds (1-1). Kicking off the action, Sonny Knight (3-0, 2 KOs) took a split decision (39-37 x2 and 37-39) against Laban Stringer (3-1) at middleweight.
On the top of prelims, Jasmine Parr (6-0, 1 KOs) earned a six-round unanimous decision against Pannaporn Kaewpawong (60-54 x3) at super bantamweight. Among other bouts, Mounir Fathi (8-1, 8 KOs) TKO’d Suitama Manuele (2-6, 1 KOs) in the second round at super welterweight.
Plus, Mai Soliman (6-1, 2 KOs) defeated Connie Brown (2-2-1) by split decision with the scores 58-56, 59-55 and 57-58 at super flyweight. In the event opener, Max McIntyre (5-0, 4 KOs) defeated L-B Mathew (2-1, 2 KOs) via third-round TKO at super middleweight.