An early hand injury did not derail Tyler Blizzard as the Launceston boxer went 5-0 to start his professional career.
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He defeated his Fijian opponent Shamal Ram Anuj through a technical knockout in the fifth round as Anuj's team threw in the towel.
Blizzard had the 32-year-old Southpaw against the ropes several times in the round, landing multiple combinations before the stoppage came.
"My performance wasn't too bad, not my best but I had a pretty awkward opponent in front of me which made things difficult," he said.
"I hurt my hand early in the fight and I just kept pushing and got the job done. The initial plan was to go out and see what he had in the first round and he brought to the table a lot of power.
"Once I hurt my hand I had to be smart and reassess things as the fight went on."
Already back training with Stephen Pitt at Hinterland Boxing Club on the Sunshine Coast, Blizzard believes his hand injury is just a bruised knuckle and will not affect his plans going forward.
The 25-year-old is eyeing off an Australian title fight in October, which would be the pinnacle of a remarkable return to boxing.
After an amateur career of 60 fights across eight years, Blizzard had five years out of the ring before returning to full-time training in July 2021.
"I've chopped and changed camps and I've been through plenty of low times over the last two years," he said.
"Now I'm in a great team with Hinterland Boxing Club and my life's well and truly in a good spot and I'm surrounded by some incredible people - so things are looking up."
Blizzard said he had close to 50 people from Tasmania and Sydney there supporting him at Saturday night's Tasman Fighters event, which was held in Queensland and streamed internationally on DAZN.com.
"It's unreal to think the first flight there might have only been a handful of people there and now it's just growing and growing and I'm definitely feeling the love and the support from from everyone that tunes in, comes up and watches and sends me messages," he said.
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