{"id":154566,"date":"2025-09-19T14:57:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T14:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/154566\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T14:57:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T14:57:13","slug":"boxing-news-2025-tim-tszyu-podcast-on-kostya-relationship-with-father-and-childhood-with-nikita","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/154566\/","title":{"rendered":"Boxing news 2025, Tim Tszyu podcast on Kostya, relationship with father and childhood with Nikita"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian fighter Tim Tszyu<\/a> has opened up on his fractured relationship with famous father Kostya<\/a> in a raw podcast interview.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old Sydneysider is the eldest son of the former undisputed world champion, who lived in Australia but has Russian, Korean, and Mongolian ancestry.<\/p>\n

Kostya was born in Russia but was considered an Aussie from 1993 and spent his career inside the ring largely representing Australia.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Aussie star Hull protests successfully after fall<\/a><\/p>\n

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But once his fighting days were done he left Sydney and moved back to Russia to start a new life, leaving behind Tim, younger brother Nikita, and their mother Natasha.<\/p>\n

“Firstly he found another partner. And secondly the love he got in Russia was a completely different love (to what) he got here,” Tim told the Unscripted podcast with former NRL player Josh Mansour.<\/p>\n

“There was red carpet treatment, and I think he felt a really nice feeling towards that. I wouldn’t like that, to roll out the red carpet everywhere you go. I’m Australian and that’s not how we do things.<\/p>\n

\"Tim<\/p>\n

Tim Tszyu with his father Kostya in 2019.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“He’s treated as a sporting icon there and I think that’s what brought him back. I think in Australia athletes are forgotten, whereas in Russia if you have become a world champion for that country you’re going to be remembered. You’re going to be shown a lot of love.”<\/p>\n

When Kostya did live in Australia with the family, Tim says it wasn’t an easy childhood for he and Nikita.<\/p>\n

“When my dad was around it was like an army sergeant. Non stop, very disciplined life. We had to wake up at a certain time,” he said.<\/p>\n

“When he left it was like the complete opposite. There was more flexibility, being able to do things out of the ordinary.<\/p>\n

“I remember random stuff, like he would say, ‘OK, we’re not eating this weekend.’ I was only young, like 10. Imagine being 10 and told you’re not allowed to eat today or tomorrow.<\/p>\n

“Another time we would grab our backpacks and he would be like ‘today we’re going to walk 20km’. Your legs are tired after three or four hours but you’re still walking. Not many kids would be doing that type of stuff.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Kostya Tszyu and his sons Nikita and Tim as youngsters.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“Now with his kids, he’s got two little ones now, he is completely different. Now he’s not a fighter at all. He is mellow, relaxed, his priority is raising his kids whereas back in the day it wasn’t.”<\/p>\n

After Kostya left Australia and his family behind, Tim admits he felt a little lost.<\/p>\n

But he found his path in the same discipline his father conquered, fighting his way to be world champion in 2023. He’s since lost the belts, and three of his past four fights.<\/p>\n

While Tim’s corner on fight night always includes various family members, his father is never one of them.<\/p>\n

He still speaks to Kostya and says the door is open for the pair to create a stronger connection in the future.<\/p>\n

Tim doesn’t necessarily want his father in his corner.<\/p>\n

“I think he respects the fact he’s got to let me figure it out on my own and make my own decisions. It feels nice, because I know how my dad is,” he said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Tim Tszyu with younger brother Nikita.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“I’d like his opinion but at the same time I wouldn’t like it down my throat, saying I have to do it this way. We still talk (but) he’s hard to contact, and they just got rid of WhatsApp in Russia.<\/p>\n

“I would love to reconnect and do it properly. I’m just sort of waiting for him to say ‘I’m ready’.”<\/p>\n

Following Kostya leaving the country, Tszyu grew tighter with his grandparents, and particularly his grandfather.<\/p>\n

It’s for that reason he says he could never fight his brother, Nikita.<\/p>\n

“I couldn’t do it for my grandpa, my grandpa would get stressed and I wouldn’t want to put him through that,” he said.<\/p>\n

“He’s always been like my go-to guy. My dad left the country a long time ago, when I was still a kid, so I never really had that father figure besides my grandfather, so he’s always been the guy I’ve always had to lean on.<\/p>\n

“Everything I accomplish is sort of for him. You win a world title, you want to bring it to him. The happiness and joy you see from him is one of the reasons why I do it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian fighter Tim Tszyu has opened up on his fractured relationship with famous father Kostya in a raw…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-154566","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-boxing","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}