Mocking his legendary rival's tactics, Tim Tszyu is predicting Errol Spence Jr's demand to fight at middleweight will spectacularly backfire in the American's face.
The two combatants were to slug it out at a 158 pound flyweight in Sydney on Sunday before Spence's camp insisted on Tszyu rising from his customary super-welterweight division.
Tszyu (27-3, 18KOs) believes the late switch-up will play into his hands in what is being billed the biggest fight on Australian soil in boxing history.
"When they said to me 160, I said 'Thank God'. Why? Because this is the weight position I want to be at," Tszyu told AAP ahead of his do-or-die encounter.
"This is what made me say yes straight away. I've been 154 (pounds) for 10 years."
Tired of draining himself for a decade to cut weight, Tszyu this week revealed a permanent move to the middleweight ranks and says he is feeling physically supreme.
"Powerful," the one-time WBO super-welter weight world champion said.
For all his confidence, Tszyu is still claiming Spence, a former unified welterweight world champ, is favourite.
"I'm the underdog and I've been treated that way and that's alright," said the 31-year-old Sydney slayer.
"Sunday we get it on and I'm here to do the job. He's a great fighter, but I do believe in myself. Otherwise I wouldn't take this fight if I thought I was going to lose."
Experts are tipping the blockbuster won't go the distance and claiming Tszyu needs a knockout against the classy Texan to avoid suffering a fourth defeat in the past two years, and likely a career-ending one.
Tszyu doesn't care, remaining relaxed and focused for the high-stakes showdown.
"I'm just aware of what I've got in front of me, but not letting it overpower the weight," he said.
"Life is good. I'm very grateful to be on this stage. It means everything.
"What I've done in the moment, how bad I want it and my supreme ability right now, I'll get the job done."
If he doesn't, Australia's son of a boxing gun accepts what the critics are saying.
"I treat it that way. This is it," he said following twin world-title losses to Sebastian Fundora and a brutal beat-down from Bakhram Murtazaliev in the US.
Spence (28-1, 22KOs) hasn't fought in three years while recovering from the lingering effects of an horrific car accident in 2019, when ejected from his Ferrari at speed.
The 36-year-old subsequently suffered the only loss of his career, thus far, in 2023 to pound-for-pound king Terence Crawford.
Spence, though, has won twice since the "life and death" crash and insists he is ready to return to the ring once more at Afterpay Arena.
"I'm feeling great. I needed that time off just to let everything heal," he said after an open workout on Thursday.
"I wouldn't have came back if I wasn't feeling great."
Spence denied there was bad blood between the pair following a spicy build-up of barbs, culminating in the American's sledge this week that Tszyu could never compare himself to his Hall of Fame father Kostya.
"I got asked a question and I answered it," Spence said.
"But I wouldn't have said anything if I didn't get asked that question.
"So there's no animosity at all. I'm just here to do a job on Sunday. So I'm going to do what I have to do."
