Tuesday, January 13
BRISBANE, Australia – The open workouts for Nikita Tszyu-Michael Zerafa were staged in heat and humidity at the PCYC Lang Park – in the bowels of the iconic Suncorp Stadium – so intense that descriptions of the original Kronk were brought to mind. It was not only there that Rahim “CJ” Mundine revealed that he was withdrawing from his middleweight contest with Geoff Matthews, but where the first possible opportunity to judge Nelson Asofa-Solomona as a professional heavyweight following his departure from NRL took place.
BoxingScene had just finished interviewing Matthews about his fight with Mundine when the latter’s father Anthony confirmed that a calf injury meant he had been ruled out, providing the latest demonstration of the cruelty of professional boxing – particularly, on this occasion, for Matthews, who despite being fully fit won’t get paid unless a late-notice replacement as his opponent can be found.
Igor Goloubev, the uncle of Tim and Nikita Tszyu and still Nikita’s trainer, bluntly refused an interview request from BoxingScene – whether that is consistently his attitude or an attempt to keep a low profile in the first big fight in which he has been involved since Tim Tszyu replaced him with Pedro Diaz remains unclear – but the heavyweight Demsey McKean was present and available to speak, having missed Monday’s “grand arrivals” amid speculation that he might be injured or unwell.
Paulie Malignaggi, who has travelled from Florida to work on behalf of the broadcasters Main Event, when asked about Asofa-Solomona’s workout, told BoxingScene: “Intense guy. Big guy. Obviously he was trying to throw with a lot of power. Typically guys from rugby – physical guys who come from physical sports – all they know is intensity and power. They don’t have the intangibles of knowing how to take something off to then put something back on and setting that kind of trap. Does it make him bad? No. What makes them exciting is they have enough error to them to where they’re hittable but also very intense; very explosive. But nothing’s surprising. I’ve seen one, I’ve seen them all. They’re big; they’re strong; there’s a lot of snap on everything they throw. I expect the fight he’s gonna be involved in to be intense. However long it lasts it’s gonna be two trains colliding.
“The subtleties come with experience – it comes with ring time. It’s not that he’s not capable of learning. It’s just that – you go through that first phase, especially if you’ve been an aggressive athlete from a physical sport. If it’s what you know and have had success with in the past, that’s what you’re gonna bring here. What he’s gotta learn is gonna take time. We’ll see how much time, given his grasp of the sport. Sometimes it takes longer; sometimes it takes less; some guys never get it.”
Shortly before then Malignaggi could be seen in conversation with the promising junior welterweight Billy Polkinghorn, who appeared to be asking him advice, and shortly after that hitting the speedball. Whether or not he was doing so because he intends on fighting again in 2026, there existed a reminder of the reality that old habits die hard.
BoxingScene spoke again to Matthews after the disappointing development of Mundine’s withdrawal, and he said: “I’m having mixed thoughts. I don’t want to accuse anybody of anything but I feel like they saw they had a real fight in front of them – I’m not saying he’s scared, but whether he was prepared or not for a real fight and didn’t wanna take that risk, it’s on them. It depends if we can get a fighter to fill in or not – if we can, I’m still fighting. If not, what a letdown. Since I heard about the fight, all we’ve been doing is training. I’ll take their word for it that it’s an injury and he recovers well and then maybe we can run it up when he’s ready.”
