David Nyika says walking his fiancée Lexi Thornberry through six months of cancer treatment is the greatest fight he has ever taken on, and now the Olympic bronze medallist is finally ready to step back through the ropes for the biggest professional bout of his career.
Nyika has been confirmed for an IBF cruiserweight world title eliminator against New Zealand born Australian Floyd Masson in Auckland on Saturday 8 August. The winner is locked in as the mandatory challenger for the vacant IBF cruiserweight title, expected to be contested by Britain’s Viddal Riley later in the year. For Nyika the path to a world title is suddenly only two fights long, and he has spent the last half a year reminding himself why he wants it.
Thornberry, who is 24, was diagnosed with head and neck cancer in 2025. The couple, who are already engaged, spent much of the past summer and autumn around the hospital while she went through radiation. She finished her course in recent weeks and the most recent scans have been encouraging.
“It was pretty grim. It was a pretty grim six months,” Nyika told RNZ Sport on Thursday. “But this is my greatest achievement to date, saving Lex’s life.”
“She’s on the up now. And that has kind of relieved me of a lot of that pressure because I was the rock.”
The Hamilton raised fighter, who turned professional after winning bronze at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, said the experience had shifted what he wanted out of the rest of his career. He has not fought since losing to Samoan Australian Jai Opetaia in early 2025, his first defeat as a professional, and made clear there were moments during Thornberry’s treatment when boxing felt very small.
“I feel like I’ve grown up a bit in the last six months. It’s kind of put everything into perspective,” he said. “Inspiration and motivation are so fleeting, but discipline is where champions are made.”
The Masson fight has been a long time in the making. The IBF stripped Opetaia of the cruiserweight belt earlier this year after he signed with Dana White’s breakaway Zuffa Boxing promotion, leaving the title vacant and forcing the governing body to order a fresh round of eliminators. Nyika is currently ranked fifth by the IBF and Masson sixth, and the sanctioning body has given tentative approval for the two of them to fight for the number one contender slot.
Masson is the more experienced professional. He carries a record of 17 wins and 2 losses, with nine of those wins by knockout, and has been based in Australia for most of his career. Nyika sits at 12 and 1 with 10 stoppages, a higher knockout ratio that reflects the heavy power he carried out of the amateur ranks. Both men are tall, rangy cruiserweights with reach, and both have repeatedly said publicly they expect a hard night’s work.
Stuff reported on Wednesday that the eliminator has been green lit for Auckland on 8 August, with venue and undercard details still being finalised. New Zealand based promoters have flagged the night as the most significant professional fight in the city since Joseph Parker met Junior Fa at Spark Arena in 2021.
The 30 year old said his preparation will begin in earnest in early June. He plans to spend the bulk of camp at home in Auckland so he can keep supporting Thornberry through her ongoing recovery checks, rather than disappearing to a training base overseas. The personal angle has clearly cut through with the boxing community, and Nyika has been open about how much his role had to shift while Thornberry was in treatment.
A win on 8 August would put Nyika one fight away from becoming only the second New Zealand born man to hold a recognised world heavyweight or cruiserweight title, after Parker’s WBO heavyweight reign from late 2016 to early 2018. It would also represent one of the more striking comebacks in recent New Zealand sport, given how close he came to walking away from the ring during the worst weeks of Thornberry’s treatment.
For now though, Nyika appears genuinely relieved that the woman he is about to marry is well enough for him to start counting punches again. Treatment first, eliminator second, world title shot third. Everything else, including the wedding date he is yet to publicly set, can wait.
Floyd Masson is expected to arrive in Auckland in mid July. Until then the focus stays on camp, on scans, and on a fight that has suddenly become about something bigger than a belt.
For the latest on Nyika’s preparation, the full Auckland fight card, and Floyd Masson’s response, follow our boxing coverage and let us know in the comments below who you think wins on 8 August and whether you’ll be at the fight on the night.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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