NRL supercoach Wayne Bennett is set to be a special ringside guest at Tim Tszyu\u2019s must-win fight with Anthony Velazquez next week after the pair sat down for a one-on-one meeting at South Sydney training on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n
Tszyu, who fights to save his career at the TikTok Entertainment Centre (formerly the ICC Convention Centre) in Sydney, took a break from the final week of fight preparation to spend an hour on the sidelines at Souths training this week.<\/p>\n
He tossed a ball around while taking in the action before catching up with Rabbitohs stars Cam Murray and Latrell Mitchell.<\/p>\n
Souths five-eighth Cody Walker then presented Tszyu with a jersey with his name on the back, saying he\u2019ll also be in attendance on December 17.<\/p>\n
\u201cHope to see you wearing it at a few games, mate \u2013 maybe a GF,\u201d Walker said. \u201cI\u2019m excited to see Tim back in Australia, I\u2019ve always been a big supporter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember back at the Hordern Pavilion (he) fought on a Paul Gallen undercard in the very early days.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was a big supporter of his dad\u2019s too from a young age.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo see him back in Sydney, we\u2019ll all be down there as a club, and we\u2019re looking forward to seeing him getting his arm raised in victory.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tszyu met Bennett for the first time on the side of the training paddock moments after the session ended, before the former World Champion spoke to the seven-time Premiership winner inside Rabbitohs HQ.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was exciting to meet the great Wayne Bennett and sit down for a few minutes,\u201d Tszyu said. \u201cHe told me he was coming to watch me fight next week.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was my first time meeting him, but he seems like a very knowledgeable man.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite being spotted with Cronulla Sharks jerseys over the years, Tszyu confirmed his true allegiances lie with the Rabbitohs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been to a lot of different games and a lot of different teams have given me jerseys, but I\u2019ve always been a Bunnies supporter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
There are some similarities between Tszyu and the Rabbitohs, with both attempting to bounce back from disappointing outings over the past two years.<\/p>\n
Tszyu has lost three of his last four, but is adamant with a new team around him he can make it back to a world title shot again, while Souths finished a disappointing 14th on the NRL ladder.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not what you\u2019ve previously done, it\u2019s what you\u2019re about to do,\u201d Tszyu said. \u201cWe\u2019re in the same position, we need to prove it to ourselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m bulletproof, and the only thing on my mind right now is victory.\u201d<\/p>\n
Walker said he\u2019s no good with a pair of gloves on, but singled out a couple of teammates who can throw hands.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a few of our boys who could transition (to boxing) and do a good job,\u201d he said. \u201cJacky Wighton\u2019s name gets mentioned a fair bit, and Brandon Smith as well. He\u2019s got that boxing mentality.<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely won\u2019t be getting in the ring.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tszyu\u2019s appearance at Rabbitohs training comes as Velazquez\u2019s departure from America was delayed after his name was printed incorrectly on his ticket.<\/p>\n
He was unable to leave on his scheduled flight, and was forced to re-book to a later flight.<\/p>\n
Team Tszyu could already be sweating on flights and airport delays, with his trainer, Pedro Diaz, only scheduled to arrive in Australia one day before the bout.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeriously? This is the first time I\u2019ve heard of it,\u201d Tszyu said of Velazquez\u2019s delay. \u201cDon\u2019t scare me, please.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s just get him here. I don\u2019t care, give him any advantage he needs, I just need him here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NRL supercoach Wayne Bennett is set to be a special ringside guest at Tim Tszyu\u2019s must-win fight with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[156901,64,63,689,802,188435,14868,28350,1653,4565,188437,187504,1082,188434,673,677,2821,140787,14867,4439,85,670,5942,44361,188436,1651],"class_list":["post-338750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-airport-delays","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-mentality","tag-brandon-mychal-smith","tag-brendan-bradford","tag-cody-walker","tag-cronulla-sharks","tag-disappointing-outings","tag-fight-preparation","tag-latrell-mitchell","tag-must-win-fight","tag-new-south-wales","tag-oceania","tag-paul-gallen","tag-pedro-diaz","tag-south-sydney","tag-south-sydney-rabbitohs","tag-sports","tag-sydney","tag-tim-tszyu","tag-time-meeting","tag-training-paddock-moments","tag-wayne-bennett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338750","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=338750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}