IT WAS only a matter of time, Sakio Bika says. The money, the titles, the knockouts, the fanfare: all waiting to be grabbed by his cement hands.

"Now, I do boxing for business, not to survive. Before I had to fight or I couldn't eat, now I can eat everyday, so if the deal isn't good I don't give a shit, I can sit down and wait," says Bika, Australia's latest world champion.

Bika battered Peter Manfredo jnr in the American's parochial home town of Providence, Rhode Island last week and the contest (sort of) was stopped in the third round after Manfredo was hit by a hurricane of power shots.

The crowd threw bottles and cans into the ring afterwards but Manfredo wasn't complaining. Bika's strength is unmatched in the super-middleweight division. His part-time trainer, David Birchell, describes it best: "Sakio's jab is so strong. People do not realise how sharp it is. His jab is like if someone got a billiard ball, put it in a stocking and whipped it into your face."

That jab and his sledgehammer hooks earned Bika the vacant IBO title - and his eyes are now set on Jermain Taylor, Joe Calzaghe and Bernard Hopkins.

"I was supposed to be a world champion a long time ago, [and] if I had the right managers and promoters I would have been," Bika says. "I don't want to put down my managers in Australia - at that time I needed money and they needed their 10percent.

"But I wasn't getting the right fights and now I've got the profile, I can take my time. I am not doing it to survive anymore. I don't care who I fight - I am a fighter. If the deal is right then let's do it, baby."

Never afraid to venture beyond his shores - he fought Calzaghe in England, world champion Markus Beyer in Germany, and world champion Lucian Bute in Canada - Bika made the trip to Providence where Manfredo was unbeaten and carved him like a wood-chopper.

The Sydneysider almost threw away his opportunity when referee Ricky Gonzalez ruled that a Bika slip in the second round was a knockdown. Incensed at being given a standing eight-count after he had nearly punched Manfredo's face off, Bika pushed Gonzalez away, which can be enough to earn a disqualification.

"I was very pissed off. I was wondering if this man knew his job," Bika says. "If a knockdown is called against you it can be very hard to get back into the fight. At that moment I was thinking if I don't knock him out I would not win.

"I hurt him with a hook at the end of the second round and he never recovered from that, and I finished it in the third.

"Manfredo was man enough to say he wants to fight Bika, and I respect him for that because he knows I have a lot of power and when I come to the ring, I come to fight, I don't muck around."

Bika expects to return to the ring early next year, again in the US. Taylor scored a points win over Jeff Lacy last weekend as he looks to revive his career after two losses to Kelly Pavlik, and would be a tempting bout for Bika. Calzaghe has not officially announced if he's retired after defeating Roy Jones jnr. Hopkins's plans are also uncertain.

So many options, so much to achieve. It's all in Bika's hands.