Tim Tszyu’s mother Natalia has predicted that the Australian world champion and his fiancée will give her a grandson who will follow in his footsteps by becoming a boxer, just days before he has the biggest fight of his life in Las Vegas.
The 29-year-old fights 197cm Sebastian Fundora on Sunday, Australia time, with Tszyu’s WBO super welterweight title and vacant WBC title on the line.
Natalia Tszyu made the prediction while in Vegas to watch her son attempt to follow in his legendary father Kostya’s footsteps by claiming a world title in Sin City – which would make him the first Australian-born boxer to accomplish the feat .
“I’m telling you, I won’t be surprised if one day you talk to me and I become a grandmother and my grandsons start fighting,” she told Fox sports.
“Honestly, I can feel it.”
Tim Tszyu’s mother Natalia (pictured together) believes it is only a matter of time before her son gives her a grandson who will continue the family’s fighting tradition
The Australian world champion is engaged to longtime partner Alexandra Constantine (pictured together) after they met at a boxing class in Sydney in 2016
Constantine has been at almost all of Tim’s fights and will be ringside when he takes on the biggest challenge of his career (and biggest opponent) on Sunday, Australian time
Tszyu is in for a David versus Goliath clash with Fundora, who is a whopping 9 inches taller than him and has an incredible reach advantage.
The Aussie is a heavy favorite to win the fight, and if he were to do so he would be emulating his father, who scored perhaps his most famous victory when he knocked out Zab Judah in spectacular fashion to become the unified lightweight champion of the world became a gambling mecca. in 2001.
Natalia further revealed that her son made an eerily accurate prediction about his fighting future more than a decade ago.
She said she tried to stop Tim and his brother Nikita from taking up boxing by putting them in private school and changing their lives so they could “live in a normal Australian way”.
Tszyu will give away a whopping 23cm tall to American Sebastian Fundora when they fight for the WBO and WBC super welterweight belts in Las Vegas
‘One day, twelve years ago, Tim said to me, ‘Mom, I want to box. I see myself fighting in Las Vegas. And when my dad comes to Australia one day, I’m going to pick him up in a nice car and drive by Sydney,” she recalls.
“I stand here today and I remember that conversation. And the dream becomes reality.’
Tszyu is engaged to longtime partner Alexandra Constantine, who will be ringside on Sunday.
He has said the Sydney-born finance graduate has been a rock for him during his rise to the top of the sport.
‘She lives this too. She is young, she could be going to bars, hanging out with her friends, but instead on Saturday nights she sits in a sauna with me and then we go to bed early,” Tszyu said.
The Tszyu family is pictured from right to left in Las Vegas for the Fundora fight: mother Natalia, Tim, his sister Anastasia and brother Nikita
It was reported that Tim’s legendary father Kostya would be ringside with Alexandra for the huge title fight, but the 54-year-old made a comeback from that earlier this week.
‘If I’m on a diet, she’s on a diet. She cooks a lot of meals, she actually keeps me on track with my diet.
“So if I win a fight, it’s not just my victory, she deserves the spotlight too.”
The pair met at a boxing class in Sydney’s southern suburb of Rockdale in 2016, and it was love at first sight for Tszyu.
The fighter, who normally refuses to hold the pads for anyone else, was impressed by her smile.
When the class was over, the pair started talking and the two have been inseparable ever since.
Constantine, who speaks fluent English, French and Macedonian, has been ringside at almost all of Tszyu’s professional fights.
It was originally reported that Kostya would make the trip to the US to watch him fight Fundora, but the 54-year-old legend backtracked and will no longer be in attendance.
