Nikita Tszyu Forces Oscar Diaz To Retire After Six Rounds

Nikita Tszyu moved past the most substantial test of his professional career in Newcastle. He stopped Spain’s Oscar Diaz after six one-sided rounds to win the vacant WBO International super-welterweight title. He also preserved the family habit of making the ring a rather uncomfortable place to work. Diaz did not answer the bell for the seventh, leaving Tszyu the winner by retirement at the end of the sixth round. The victory took Tszyu’s unbeaten record to 12-0, with one no contest. Diaz lost for the first time as a professional.

The Newcastle Entertainment Centre, inevitably rebranded in spirit as “Tszyucastle”, had come to see whether Diaz could take the younger Tszyu beyond the usual domestic script. The Spaniard arrived unbeaten, confident and willing enough, but willingness quickly became the least useful currency in the room. Tszyu was sharper, heavier-handed and more spiteful in almost every exchange, and once he settled into his rhythm, Diaz spent too much of the fight reacting to punches rather than shaping the contest himself.

Tszyu began with patience, which is not always the word most readily associated with him. He boxed behind a composed guard and took a look at Diaz’s movement. Then he started to close the range with growing authority. Diaz tried to answer in bursts, but his attacks lacked the snap or accuracy to discourage the Australian. When Tszyu stepped in, he did so with conviction, firing short combinations and making Diaz feel the weight of every exchange.

By the middle rounds, the pattern had become plain. Diaz was brave, but he was being outboxed and outpunched. Tszyu’s left hand was especially effective, whether used as a lead, a hook, or the uppercut that crashed into Diaz’s chin in the sixth. The Spaniard stayed upright after that shot, which said much for his toughness and perhaps a little for his stubbornness, but the direction of travel was no longer open to debate.

The controversial moment came late in the sixth. Diaz was forced to a knee, and Tszyu, caught in the momentum of the attack, landed two punches after the Spaniard had gone down. Diaz’s corner was furious and had every right to protest. Tszyu apologised immediately, and later said he had not seen Diaz take the knee, but the incident could have invited far sterner consequences on another night with another referee. It did not alter the general superiority of his performance, though it did place an untidy stain on an otherwise commanding display.

Diaz resumed after the incident, but only briefly in practical terms. His corner withdrew him at the end of the round, which was a sensible decision. He had absorbed enough and was no longer changing the pattern of the fight. He looked increasingly like a man being asked to prove his courage long after his tactics had stopped serving him. Corners are often accused of being either too brave or too cautious. This one chose common sense, a commodity not always in plentiful supply around boxing rings.

For Tszyu, this was the kind of win he needed after the unsatisfactory no-contest with Michael Zerafa in January. That bout had ended before it could properly answer anything, while this one provided six rounds in which Tszyu could show development rather than merely violence. He looked more controlled than reckless, more measured than hurried, and still retained the unpleasant edge that makes him such a watchable fighter at 154 pounds.

There will now be louder talk of world-title ambitions, as there always is when a Tszyu wins under bright lights in Australia. That talk should not run away with itself. Tszyu remains exciting, unbeaten, and marketable, but he is still learning the finer parts of professional boxing. The late punches on a kneeling opponent showed how quickly instinct can carry a fighter into trouble. Even so, this was a clear step forward. Diaz came unbeaten and left beaten up, retired on his stool, and with no serious argument about which man had been in charge.