Legendary trainer calls out two Aussie boxing greats who \u2018talked s***\u2019 before Tszyu triumph<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cBen Mahoney is as tough as they come. A lot of people thought this fight shouldn\u2019t happen, but these are two genuine fighters who back themselves, and the fans are the ones who reap the rewards.<\/p>\n
\u201cExpect brutality. Expect raw power. Expect absolute fireworks. Two undefeated Australians, ranked inside the world\u2019s top 10, with everything on the line. This is what the sport is supposed to look like.\u201d<\/p>\n
Along with Hall of Fame father Kostya, the Tszyus remain unbeaten on home soil.<\/p>\n
And speaking with Fox Sports Australia only last week, Tszyu opened on where the issues between he and Nikita stemmed from, and his eagerness to have the pair supporting each other at fights again.<\/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
Nikita Tszyu celebrates victory against Oscar Diaz.Source: Getty Images<\/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. But 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. Because 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. Or I hope they don\u2019t feel that.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause it\u2019s definitely not that from my side \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
While the Tszyu boys had gone several months without speaking, Tim admitted 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
‘This could be it’ Tszyu’s honest reveal | 08:26<\/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 in the build to his fight. \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
As hardcore Aussie boxing fans will know, Mahoney is the undefeated Brisbane fighter who famously broke the jaw of fellow Queenslander Benjamin Hussain in a 2020 classic.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I\u2019m not here to f*** around,\u201d he told us recently. \u201cRight now, I\u2019m in my prime as a fighter and the winner of this fight between Nikita and I, they\u2019ll then go on to massive things.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I\u2019m getting goosebumps just talking about it now. And that\u2019s because I have such belief in what I can do.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, if Nikita isn\u2019t ready to test himself with a fight like this, or I wasn\u2019t ready \u2026 we shouldn\u2019t be doing this sport. And I\u2019m the biggest test of Nikita Tszyu\u2019s career, I can guarantee that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nikita Tszyu\u2019s IBF world title eliminator finally has a home. Only days after older brother Tim emphatically upset…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":828837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-828836","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\/828836","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=828836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/828837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=828836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=828836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=828836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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