Tim Tszyu says the David Benavidez style of fighting is the one he plans on bringing out “The Monster” in his fight against Errol Spence Jr. this Saturday night in their headliner in Sydney, Australia.
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The former WBO 154-lb champion Tszyu believes that Spence is coming out of his three-year retirement due to the $20 million he made from his last fight against Terence Crawford starting to run out. In other words, he suspects that Spence, 36, is returning from retirement for financial reasons.
“Honestly, I wasn’t really a fan of Errol Spence. Never was, never will be. I’m more David Benavidez style, you know, that Mexican style. That’s the boxing style that I aspire to be. We just unleash,” said Tszyu to Fight Hub TV.
Tszyu, 31, has never had the Benavidez-esque fighting style, and he’s far along in his career for him to remake his approach after 10 years in the game. He’s always loaded up on single power shots to chop down his opponents, many of them not being older and not cutting-edge fighters.
Only recently in fights against Anthony Velazquez, Denis Nurja and Joey Spencer did we see Tszyu throw combinations that resembled Benavidez’s style. Those fighters weren’t a threat to making Tszyu pay for fighting like that the way Spence could or how Sebastian Fundora and Bakhram Murtazaliev did.
“When you’ve made $20 million from one fight, your mind changes, I guess,” said Tszyu about Spence. “Three years of enjoying yourself, it slowly starts to run out. You need a little bit more money. So I think that’s probably his biggest inspiration right now.
“What happens behind the scenes is the most important thing. I think the last three years of what he was doing in those three years will come out.”
Tszyu could be right about Spence. If he’s returning for the wrong reasons, it might not end well for him on Saturday night. It would have helped if Spence had taken one or two tune-up fights before facing Tszyu. For him to jump straight into this clash, it’s a risk for any ring-rusty fighter, especially one that has been involved in the kind of car crash Spence experienced in 2019.
“I wouldn’t take this fight if I thought I was going to lose. I am 100% confident in victory, and this is why this fight is made,” said Tszyu. “New coaches, new outlook in life, new outlook in boxing. And I got this crazy hunger, and it just grows in the stomach. Yes, will I bring out the monster? I will bring out that monster.”
Last Updated on 2026/07/23 at 2:10 PM
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