Tim Tszyu is intent on securing a place in boxing immortality that even his legendary father never achieved after gaining a crack at middleweight world championship glory.
While a date and the exact location have yet to be revealed, promoters have confirmed Tszyu (28-3, 18 KOs) will fight cagey Cuban southpaw Erislandy Lara (32-3-3, 19 KOs) in Australia in the coming months for the WBA middleweight belt.
Victory would elevate Tszyu to two-weight world champion status after the 31-year-old claimed the WBO super-welterweight strap with victory over Brian Mendoza in Sydney in 2023.
For all his accomplishments, Kostya Tszyu, the unified light welterweight king and International Boxing Hall of Famer, won every one of his world titles at 140 pounds.
Now the son of a gun is relishing his chance to pen another, but his own, glorious page in the Tszyu history book.
"I've carried the Tszyu name my whole life," he said. "It's a privilege and it's pressure.
"This is my chance to write a chapter that belongs to me, and it's the legacy defining moment of my career."
Lara is boxing's oldest reigning world champion at 43 and one of the most decorated fighters of his generation.
"The American Dream" was the 2005 world amateur winner, reigned as WBA super-welterweight champ and has held the WBA middleweight crown since 2021 with four successful defences.
He has never been stopped.
"Lara is a great champion," Tszyu acknowledged.
"He's slick, he's clever and stylistically he's very hard. He'll want to turn this into a chess match.
"But I've never taken the easy road. I want the man with the belt, and I'll drag him into a fight he doesn't want."
After crushing world-title losses in the US to American Sebastian Fundora either side of a brutal beat-down at the hands of Russian hitman Bakhram Murtazaliev in Florida, Tszyu is now coming off three consecutive victories.
He called out Lara after scoring a unanimous points decision over the previously undefeated great Errol Spence Jr in his middleweight debut in front of 12,000 fans at a sold out Afterpay Arena in July.
Now he gets him with Jeff Fenech in his corner after arguably Australia's greatest-ever boxer and four-division world champion joined Tszyu in April.
"Having Jeff Fenech in my corner means everything," Tszyu said.
"He knows exactly what it takes to win titles at multiple weights, and he's in my ear every single day. (Fellow Australian) Liam Paro already did it this year, now it's my turn.
"At 160 (pounds), I feel strong. I feel sharp and I feel dangerous. Middleweight is my division now. Spence was just the appetiser."
