Spence has stiff-armed Tszyu for handshakes. He ghosted the second-generation fighter during media obligations. He made late changes to the contracted weight they agreed on. And as fight week kicked off, Spence was seen sporting a rat tail, an inimitable and customary hairstyle worn by Kostya Tszyu.

But mind games won't matter once Spence (28-1, 22 KOs) and Tszyu (27-3, 18 KOs) square off at Afterpay Arena in Sydney, Australia on Sunday afternoon (Saturday night in the United States).

The stars of the show stepped in front of the cameras for grand arrivals on Tuesday, and Spence was suddenly confronted with another opponent he didn’t like.

“It feels good to be in Australia, and that’s one of the reasons why I wanted to fight overseas, because I wouldn’t have to do many interviews – I dread it every time," Spence said. “It’s something that I do not like to do. If I could just fight, I would just fight. I really don’t care for all this stuff, but I know you gotta do it … I’m just ready to put on a show.”

People certainly want to hear what Spence has to say.

It’s been three years since the 36-year-old Texan last graced the ring in a one-sided stoppage loss against Terence Crawford for the undisputed welterweight title.

The clash with Crawford was always supposed to be Spence’s last fight at 147 pounds, but he skipped the highly competitive junior middleweight division altogether in his return. The fight against Tszyu was originally supposed to take place at a catch weight of 158 pounds, but Spence asked for the fight to take place at 160 pounds, a request that was honored two weeks before their DAZN/Amazon Prime pay-per-view main event.

“There’s really nothing to clear. I didn’t feel like getting down to 158 pounds,” Spence said with a hearty laugh. “Why y’all doing 158? Because y’all think that I’m the smaller guy coming from 147 – just have it at 160. It’s simple. That’s the weight class anyway – 158 is a catch weight. … It is what it is. Let them think whatever they want to think [that I am struggling to make weight]. They’ll see something different on the night of the fight.”

If the weight change was intentional, Spence said growing out the unique rat tail was not.

“It’s always something I really wanted to do,” Spence said. “I cut my dreads off, but I wanted the rat tail. [Tszyu’s] father did have one, but I told them it was a coincidence and I didn’t do it on purpose. But I’m rolling with it.”

Spence also discussed another hairy topic in training with new coach Ronnie Shields, especially after recently admitting he wasn’t physically ready for Crawford.

“Training camp was hard," Spence admitted. "There were times where I just wanted to go home. It took a while for my body to really get adjusted to pushing the pace and going all out.”

Spence sat down for a face-to-face conversation with Tszyu on Monday to continue ramping up the promotion of their fight. After refusing to shake his rival’s hand during a press conference in Las Vegas two months ago, Spence said he won’t be shaking hands with Tszyu even after they finish exchanging punches.

“I know he’s trying to be a gentleman, but he’s said stuff about breaking my eye and stuff like that and then wants to shake my hand,” Spence said. “He’s talking about retiring me, so I’m not trying to shake his hand. He knows what he said, now stand on it.”

Manouk Akopyan is The Ring’s lead writer. Follow him on X and Instagram: @ManoukAkopyan.