Tszyu Shaves Head Before Oscar Diaz Fight — Tszyu Vs Diaz
Nikita Tszyu sharpened his pre-fight routine for tszyu vs diaz by shaving his head after Monday’s final press conference, just before the weigh-in. The move came as he prepared to face Oscar Diaz on Wednesday 6 May from 7pm AEST, with the bout carrying extra weight after the no contest with Michael Zerafa in January.
Nikita Tszyu Ritual
Tszyu said the shave is one of the last things he does before fights. “I like the shaving – even just the ritual behind it. It feels like I’m going into battle. That’s my family-man hair; my daughter loves grabbing my hair, so it was hard to shave it off then, but Papa’s gotta go to work. He needs it gone,” he said.
He also said the routine changes his mindset. “The shaving of the head is like a ritual for me. I do it myself, and it just puts me in the [right] state of mind,” Tszyu said. He added that the final week changes him physically too: “Physically, my body also changes in that last week, the weight cut brings out some aggression, brings out some energy inside of you, and it all culminates to the fight night.”
Oscar Diaz Awaited
The head shave landed in a fight week built around a long-awaited meeting with Spain’s Oscar Diaz. Diaz entered the bout undefeated, and the matchup offered Tszyu a fresh assignment after January’s controversial no contest with Michael Zerafa.
Tszyu said the habit is relatively new. “I only started shaving my head a year-and-a-half ago. For two, three fights. I just shaved it with my brother [Tim] when we went to our camp in America,” he said. The sequence is now part of his final preparation, not a one-off.
George Rose Backing
George Rose pushed the ceiling even higher on the eve of the fight, saying Tszyu can stop every super welterweight champion. “I know for a fact Nikita can knock out every champion at super welterweight,” he said. “He can absolutely knock out every one of them.”
That is the test now: Tszyu takes a familiar ritual into an unfamiliar opponent, with the January no contest still sitting behind the new assignment. The shave is finished, the weigh-in sits behind him, and the fight against Diaz is next.
