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Apart from being billed as the biggest fight card in Australian boxing history, there have also been suggestions Tszyu\u2019s headliner could cause angst between the famed siblings \u2013 including suggestions Nikita could be barred from attending.<\/p>\n
Speaking after a training session this week however, Tszyu not only talked of having his brother ringside for the biggest fight of his career, but suggested he could even be in his dressing room prior to the bout.<\/p>\n
Surprisingly, Tszyu has also extended the same invitation to those former team members who famously helped him all the way to a WBO world title three years ago \u2013 including former manager Glen Jennings and trainer\/uncle Igor Goloubev.<\/p>\n
While Tszyu split with the pair late last year, both Jennings and Goloubev remain with his younger brother, who is now in world title contention himself after going undefeated through his first dozen professional bouts.<\/p>\n
Unsurprisingly, the elder Tszyu\u2019s decision to part ways with the team overseeing both brothers has caused more than a little drama in recent months \u2013 including accusations of fight bans and gym lockouts.<\/p>\n
There have also been suggestions more recently that Nikita could now be banned from his brother\u2019s Spence showdown.<\/p>\n
Tim Tszyu and Nikita Tszyu.Source: Supplied<\/p>\n
However, speaking after a training session this week, the elder Tszyu stressed any talk of a ban was \u201cabsolutely not the case\u201d \u2013 with the former world champ instead offered to bring little brother into his inner sanctum on fight night. <\/p>\n
\u201cBecause Nikita\u2019s my younger brother — I love him,\u201d Tszyu said simply. \u201cI mean, you\u2019ve seen first hand what I\u2019m like on those nights where he goes out and fights, you\u2019ve seen what happens to me.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Laughs] I\u2019m out of control, ready to punch on with f***ing everyone.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd nothing is put on there, that\u2019s just how I feel. How I am.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I understand people can all react differently.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut Nikita is definitely welcome in my dressing room on fight night. Again, he\u2019s my brother.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it\u2019s actually the same with his team.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause those guys were also my team for nine f***ing years, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd just because I\u2019ve decided to move on with my life and do something different, it doesn\u2019t suddenly make anything me versus them.<\/p>\n
\u201cOr I hope they don\u2019t feel that.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause it\u2019s definitely not that from my side \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Spence gets warm Aussie welcome | 02:15<\/p>\n
While the Tszyu brothers have recently gone several months without speaking, Tim now concedes part of that was due to his going through \u201ca really dark time\u201d after retiring on his stool against Sebastian Fundora last July.<\/p>\n
Following the heartbreaking loss, and with question marks hanging over his career, the former world champ then went and dropped his team before heading Stateside and eventually linking up with famed Cuban Olympic coach Pedro Diaz in Miami, Florida.<\/p>\n
While then winning consecutive bouts under Diaz \u2013 against previously unbeaten rivals Anthony Velazquez and Denis Nurja \u2013 Tszyu still wasn\u2019t satisfied and so, most recently, linked up with Australian Hall of Famer, Jeff Fenech.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I went through a dark period there for a while,\u201d Tszyu revealed this week. \u201cAnd that\u2019s why I had to focus on myself, just get through a couple of fights.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that last one especially, it was tough.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I guess in every family from time to time, people have arguments. It\u2019s normal.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut unfortunately with my brother and I, it\u2019s just played out a little bit more publicly than it would\u2019ve with anyone else.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut of course if Nikita wants to be at the Spence fight he can. He\u2019s my younger brother and I love him.\u201d<\/p>\n
What’s going on between Tim & Nikita? | 01:04<\/p>\n
Nine months have now passed since Tszyu initially made global headlines after splitting with the team that still oversees Nikita\u2019s rising career.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, Tszyu and Jennings also appeared headed for the NSW Supreme Court over an alleged $1 million breach of contract dispute.<\/p>\n
However with that issue now sorted privately, the former world champ has stressed there is no lingering animosity towards the man who also worked with his father, Hall of Famer Kostya Tszyu.<\/p>\n
Jennings will almost certainly be at the Tszyu-Spence event in Sydney on Sunday week, with another of his clients, two-time world title challenger Liam Wilson, also throwing down on the stacked undercard against American Stephen Fulton.<\/p>\n
In recent years, both Tim and Nikita have been regulars ringside, and even in the corner, when their brother was fighting.<\/p>\n
In fact, when Tim Tszyu was stopped by IBF world champion Bakhram Murtazaliev, it was younger brother Nikita who tossed in the towel to stop the fight, drawing widespread praise.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, Tim Tszyu has previously spoken of the bond between the brothers, despite their obvious differences.<\/p>\n
Tszyu once recounted how, only a week prior to beating Ben Horn in 2022, Nikita had undergone emergency surgery on an ear injury suffered in sparring.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo a week prior to that fight, Nikita is on antibiotics \u2013 and he\u2019s rattled,\u201d big brother recalled.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan\u2019t even walk straight.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I\u2019ve said \u2018man, the kid doesn\u2019t need to fight, he shouldn\u2019t be like this \u2026 postpone\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Laughs) But of course, Nikita doesn\u2019t give a f***. And fights \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
But the real kicker?<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter Nikita wins,\u201d he continues, \u201cI remember there were just so many people there in his dressing room with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut days earlier when he was in hospital getting antibiotics, (surgery), unable to walk, nobody sees that.<\/p>\n
\u201cSame as a couple of days after the fight, Nikita is back in hospital and again no one else is there.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust mum and myself, that\u2019s it.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause that\u2019s what we do in these situations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe look after each other.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tim Tszyu has spoken for the first time about the \u201cdark period\u201d which, he now believes, caused the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":804976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-804975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804975","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=804975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/804976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}