Nikita Tszyu vs Ben Mahoney result, controversial split draw, Kostya Tszyu advice, IBF title eliminator, post-fight reaction, rematch latest

Nikita Tszyu has explained how advice from Hall of Fame father Kostya was going through his head when he sensationally declared himself the loser of Wednesday night’s controversial IBF eliminator.

The revelation comes as Tszyu also suggested there is every chance he will rewatch his bout against Ben Mahoney and come to the conclusion that he should’ve been declared the winner.

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After 12 rounds of incredible boxing inside the Gold Coast Convention Centre, Tszyu’s hyped headliner against Mahoney was awarded a split decision draw – with one judge awarding the fight for Tszyu 117-111, one for Mahoney 115-113 for Mahoney, and a third ringside official scoring it 114-114.

Speaking immediately after the fight however, Tszyu created headlines by suggesting that Mahoney, as a $5.50 betting outsider, had actually got the better of him.

“I gave the fight to Ben. He was a tough fight,” Nikita told Main Event’s Ben Damon.

“I gave him maybe one or two rounds more. It was a close fight, but I thought he edged it.”

Asked at the post match press conference what he made of Tszyu’s admission, Mahoney said: “What else do you need? I thought I won, he thought I won, the fans thought I won. I won. But the scorecards are the scorecards.”

Mahoney also talked of having ended Tszyu’s bogeyman persona.

“Everyone says he hits really hard, and he does,” the Gold Coaster said. “He’s got a lot of power. Was strong, tough, durable.

“But I’ve been hit pretty hard in my life, too.

“So he’s got all the attributes of a strong, hard fighter. He hit hard, he adjusted, he didn’t mind to swang and bang. Everyone was telling me he was the bogeyman. He was going to walk me down and hurt me.

“Again, I’ve proved everyone wrong.”

Yet when it was his own turn to address the media post fight, Tszyu admitted he had erred by suggesting he lost the fight.

Asked by Fox Sports Australia about suggesting Mahoney had won, the big punching southpaw replied: “Yeah, I think that was the emotions.

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“I saw myself stopping him, envisioned it. And not being able to get it, that was a little bit emotional for me.

“I’m a huge critic of myself inside the ring. When I do my sparring, I always think I do them much worse than I actually do. Then I watch the tape and go ‘oh, I actually did better than I thought’.

“So this could be another one of those situations …”

Pushed on initially declaring that Mahoney had beaten him, Tszyu continued: “It was just the emotions.

“I was disappointed in myself. I thought I could’ve done better. Thought I could’ve done a more decisive job. I honestly thought I could’ve stopped him. I envisioned it. And, yeah, he was really tough. But it was pure disappointment in myself.

“I was hoping to finish him. I was hoping to make it a clear, decisive win. And I was a little disappointed [that I didn’t].

“So I can’t make a full assessment of the fight yet.

“I’m usually a very tough critic [of myself] inside the ring, but I’ll need to watch over the tape to make a proper assessment.”

Later, Tszyu agreed that he appeared to be winning for large chunks of the contest.

“I was putting him on the back foot for most of the fight,” he said. “I felt comfortable. I was just making little, silly mistakes that I wasn’t proud of. But overall, I think I did a decent job.”

Tszyu also spoke of how advice from his father, Kostya, had been playing on his mind.

“My dad always told me that once you go to decision, it’s out of your hands,” he said. “You lose the power. So I was disappointed in letting it go to the judges.”

Tszyu’s manager Glen Jennings also said he knew straight away that his fighter’s losing admission was being triggered by anger at himself.

“I knew it was an emotional reaction,” Jennings said. “Nikita is as tough a warrior as you can get, and it’s his own critiquing of his performance, and the disappointment [that was responsible for the statement].

“I could see it in his face as they were calling the scores.

“When it went to a draw, it seemed a fair result.

“But I knew he would already be rolling over in his mind ‘that’s on me, that’s on me, that’s on me’.

“And the first thing he said when he came over to me was ‘I should’ve closed that out’.”

Elsewhere, Tszyu would not be drawn on the idea of a rematch with Mahoney — “that’s not up to me to decide” – while also responded frankly when asked if it had been the toughest test of his career.

“What do you think?” Tszyu started with a grin, before adding that it “definitely” was.

“Ben really came for it,” he continued.

“And I knew he would be like this. Muay Thai fighters, they aren’t bred lightly. I got him with a couple of body shots through the fight and could feel him start to slow down. But then he’d slowly recover and get back into it.”

Was he better than you thought?

“I expected that. I thought I’d do a better job.”

Jennings also maintained a positive outlook afterwards.

“It’s nice to know Nikita’s zero is still intact,” he said.

“So we’ll just reset.

“Part of me is also very satisfied that he got twelve killer rounds in. We talked about this over and over. He’s going to come out of this so much better. We’ll take the positives out of this.

“It was an ‘are you entertained’ fight. A great showcase. And it was a draw. So we’ll move on.”