Tszyu overcomes early knockdown to drop Biggs and claim Aussie title

Tszyu, now unbeaten in eight professional fights, powered past the more experienced but younger Biggs in an entertaining headline act at Newcastle Entertainment Centre.

The bout was scheduled for 10 rounds but the referee called it after Biggs copped a beating in the fourth and more punishment again in the fifth when he was knocked to the canvas.

The victory secured Tszyu his eighth consecutive win and national-champion status.

"He was just a hurdle, he was a massive roadblock in my brain," Tszyu said of Biggs.

"He was a wall I had to climb over ... it feels good to climb over that, and start the next chapter."

Tszyu was knocked down himself just 40 seconds in, which livened up the first round, but he had the upper hand by the end of it, rocking Biggs with some flush head shots in the final seconds.

Tszyu appeared to cop a low blow in the second and Biggs lost his mouth-guard, but the duo traded blows throughout the round.

A Tszyu-castle chant rang out in the third but the speed of the fight and the crowd noise ultimately softened.

It picked up in the fourth when Tszyu landed a barrage of punches that had Biggs wobbling with more than a minute still to fight. But despite copping a beating he survived the round.

Clearly tiring, Biggs began to dance around the ring in the fifth and Tszyu eventually dropped him to the canvas in a corner.

Biggs rose before the referee called it off a few seconds later, handing Tszyu another dominant win and the national title.

In the co-main event, Issac Hardman scored a fifth-round TKO victory over Englishman Troy Coleman.

Hardman unleashed in the later rounds to have Coleman merely surviving before inflicting enough damage to force the referee to call it off.

The victory earned the Queenslander the IBO Inter-Continental middleweight title.

In a dramatic heavyweight fight, Whitebridge-based Brandon Grach floored Liam Talivaa just seconds into the second round to claim a big win in front of a vocal home-town crowd.

The two fighters both hit the canvas in an intense opening three minutes, but almost immediately after the bell rang for round two 30-year-old Grach dropped his Sydney opponent with a flush left hook.

It left Talivaa, 28, who had been unbeaten in five fights, flat on his back and the referee called the fight off straight away.

Grach, a promising junior who gave boxing away at 17 before taking it up again about a year ago, celebrated wildly as his team jumped in the ring.

Of the other local fighters, Brent Walton lost on points to Dharringarra Trewhella, a cousin of Anthony Mundine, but he won plenty of fans - and a $5000 bonus - for the brutal four-round welterweight battle.

Trewhella, 22, showed plenty of potential on debut and rocked Walton with a big right-hand shot in the opening round.

Walton, 28, having only his second pro fight, recovered well and pushed his younger opponent throughout, never backing away from the contest.

But the Sydney debutant landed some clean head shots on the Novocastrian and the judges rewarded him with a unanimous points win (39-38, 39-36, 38-37).

Lake Macquarie fighter Amber Amelia also lost unanimously on points, beaten by Brisbane's Natasha Kurene in their six-round super bantamweight fight (59-55, 59-55, 58-56).

Amelia who was giving up 20 centimetres in height and reach, did her best to try and take the fight to her 34-year-old opponent but Kurene largely controlled the contest with her distance advantage.

Amelia, 26, now has a professional record of three wins and three losses.

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