David Nyika into last eight of AIBA world championships to face Olympic champion

David Nyika has advanced to the quarter-finals of AIBA’s boxing world championships after beating hometown favourite Igor Teziev in Hamburg, Germany.

The Hamilton heavyweight won his preliminary bout on Monday (Tuesday NZ time) against Teziev via unanimous decision after the judges awarded Nyika all five rounds (30-27, 29-27, 30-27, 30-27, 30-25).

The 22-year-old Kiwi boxer faces Russia’s Evgeny Tishchenko, the gold medallist from last year’s Rio Olympics, in the last eight on Tuesday (Wednesday NZ time).

Tishchenko is the tournament’s No 1 ranked fighter and he beat Colombia’s Deivis Julio Blanco to meet Nyika, who lost at the quarter-final stage to Uzbekistan’s Rustam Tulaganov in the last world championships in 2015 in Doha, Qatar.

Tulaganov then beat Nyika in Olympic qualifying in China and the Uzbekistani boxer went on to win bronze in Rio, but many feel the Kiwi was unlucky to lose that fight.

Nyika missed out on the Olympics altogether following another qualifying defeat in Azerbaijan to Holland’s Roy Korving, who he could potentially meet in the semi-finals later this week.

Whatever happens in Hamburg, ​Nyika plans to fight again at the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in April next year after winning gold in Glasgow in 2014.

He retained his Oceania title in June after representing the British Lionhearts franchise in the World Series of Boxing – and winning both his fights in France and Kazakhstan – before heading to the world championships in Germany.

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