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<\/p>\n
Speaking with Fox Sports Australia this week, Fenech stressed that, while no opponent has yet been named, it will be Tszyu who has the final say on who he fights.<\/p>\n
Currently, the clubhouse leaders remain Jermell Charlo and WBA middleweight champ Erislandy Lara.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, the Marrickville Mauler also likened his growing partnership with Tszyu to that of his famed relationship with Hall of Fame trainer, Johnny Lewis – and with a grin, suggested the pair could silence the \u201cidiots\u201d and create national boxing history.<\/p>\n
Erislandy Lara punches Michael Zerafa. Picture: PBCSource: Supplied<\/p>\n
Should Tszyu fight, and beat, Lara next, the 31-year-old would join an elite list of Aussies with titles in multiple divisions, including Fenech, Liam Paro, Danny Green and Anthony \u2018Choc\u2019 Mundine. <\/p>\n
While Fenech has no preference on who Tszyu fights, the prospect of cornering him to win gold in a second weight class is obviously enticing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d love for Timmy to win world titles in two weight divisions,\u201d the four-division world champion said. \u201cTo be with him for that, yeah, incredible.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut whoever Tim chooses, I\u2019ll put a plan in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve already been planning around a couple of opponents and I know he and [No Limit promoter] Matt Rose have some things going on.<\/p>\n
\u201cEver since the Spence fight, Tim has been away. So we\u2019ll be sitting down in the next week to nail it all out. Nothing has been finalised yet, but he and Matt have a plan and I\u2019m happy to work with that.<\/p>\n
\u201cTim is the boss. I work for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tim Tszyu and Jeff Fenech. Picture: Jonathan NgSource: Supplied<\/p>\n
Asked about fighting Lara, who at 42 is the oldest reigning world champion, and Fenech continued: \u201cWell, I\u2019ve looked at his age and I\u2019ve looked at his fighting \u2026 [laughs] and Lara fights nothing like a guy who is 42.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s just so skilful, so dominant.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the reason Lara has the record he does, it\u2019s because he makes people fight his fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe dictates, and makes you fight the way he wants you to.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo my job is to make sure that doesn\u2019t happen. Get Lara wondering what Tim is going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fenech confirmed he was also working on a game plan for Charlo, who Tszyu called out via Instagram over the weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd with Charlo, you\u2019re always one punch away from losing the fight,\u201d Fenech warned. \u201cHe\u2019s a great puncher, a great finisher.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth the brothers are.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Charlos could be losing a fight through all eight rounds, then they hit you with one punch and turn everything around. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s why early on when I was still commentating for Main Event, I wasn\u2019t confident that the Tim I was seeing then \u2013 or with the team surrounding him \u2013 that he could go and do the job against Charlo.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I know now, he\u2019ll have the right plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd with the right plan Tim Tszyu can beat Charlo \u2026 he can beat anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hrgovic STUNS Itauma | 02:56<\/p>\n
So as for a proposed return date?<\/p>\n
\u201cInitially, there was talk about Tim not fighting until next January,\u201d Fenech explained. \u201cBut that\u2019s almost six months after Spence, and I want to get Tim back in there sooner.<\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially given the changes we\u2019re making.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo now there has been talk about the end of November. And once Tim returns from his break, that gives us 11 weeks which is plenty.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd whoever our opponent is, we have to make them fight our fight<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause when Tim is making rival fighters adapt, I don\u2019t believe any of them can beat him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Back in July, Tszyu went and earned the biggest scalp of his career when, fighting before a large Sydney crowd, he earned an emphatic decision win over Spence as the betting outsider. <\/p>\n
Asked about the doubters that surrounded Tszyu before the Spence win, and some of the questions that followed \u2013 including if he should\u2019ve finished the US great \u2013 and Fenech conceded critics would always be there.<\/p>\n
Fenech also reminded that there had been plenty of doubt around his own partnership with Tszyu, and if the aligning of Australia\u2019s two greatest boxing names would work.<\/p>\n
Mahoney camp questions split draw | 03:00<\/p>\n
\u201cBut look, you always get idiots talking,\u201d Fenech shrugged. \u201cAnd, of course, whoever we fight next, the doubters will still be there.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven after Tim beat Spence, people were saying different things.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I\u2019ll tell you now, Errol Spence only fought the way he did that afternoon because Tim made him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, he couldn\u2019t do anything else.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnderstand too, Spence not only came here to win, but was convinced he was winning.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why he called out in the first place.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut Timmy didn\u2019t allow that to happen. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd while there was still some hesitation in that fight, I believe all the hesitation will be gone for the next one.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause it isn\u2019t a case of \u2018is Jeff showing me the right thing?\u2019 anymore. That doubt is gone.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously it was going to be there at the start. That\u2019s natural.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut there were certain truths I spoke about and Tim knows that what I\u2019ve said is right.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe he can be so much better than he was.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd there is still plenty more to change.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut against Spence, the best thing that happened was he believed in what I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe changed a lot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019ll be a much better team for this next fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat Tim and I are doing now, it feels like back when I was with Johnny Lewis. This is a relationship built of trust and you can feel that in training.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian boxing great Jeff Fenech wants Tim Tszyu back in the ring by late November \u2013 and has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":883835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-883834","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\/883834","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=883834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/883835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=883834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=883834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=883834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}