Nyika reveals split with coach

Kiwi boxer David Nyika revealed he was training alone in empty car parks after splitting with long-time coach Rik Ellis before the AIBA world championships in Hamburg, Germany.

Nyika was controversially eliminated at the quarterfinal stage last month after the judges awarded victory to Olympic champion Evgeny Tishchenko, but many ringside felt the 22-year-old from Hamilton had edged the tour- nament’s top-ranked fighter on points.

Ellis has been Nyika’s coach since he was 14 and helped mentor him to the light heavyweight gold medal he won at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Nyika has since progressed to the heavyweight ranks but a post on his Facebook page revealed he and Ellis had parted ways.

‘‘After a falling out with my long time coach and mentor, I took it upon myself to continue the journey towards this year’s world championships,’’ Nyika said.

‘‘For the last couple of months, I have spent most nights training alone in an empty car park.’’

Nyika left for England for some sparring more than two weeks prior to the world championships starting on August 25.

He beat Germany’s Igor Teziev in the preliminaries via unanimous decision before his contentious loss to Russia’s Tishchenko in the last eight.

Nyika lost to Uzbekistani’s Rustam Tulaganov at the same stage of the last world championships back in 2015 in Doha, Qatar.