Spence, 36, would feel the same way about another aging fighter if he were coming off a devastating defeat and a three-year layoff. All of those predictable doubts about whether Spence remains a championship-caliber fighter have only motivated the former IBF, WBA and WBC welterweight champ more as he prepares to face former WBO junior middleweight titleholder Tim Tszyu on July 26 at a venue to be announced in Tszyu’s home country of Australia.

“I’m glad to be back,” Spence said during a press conference Saturday at MGM Grand. “It’s been a long time, a three-year layoff. And I’m sure everybody has their, you know, reserved opinions, thinking I’m a shell of myself or, you know, ‘Do he still have it?’ And, you know, it’s just because I would be thinking the same thing, seeing my last fight. But I guarantee you, come July 26th, you will see a better, more improved Errol Spence.”

Spence (28-1, 22 KOs), a southpaw from DeSoto, Texas, and Tszyu (27-3, 18 KOs) will compete at a contracted catch weight of 158 pounds in a 12-round main event Amazon’s Prime Video will distribute on pay-per-view the night of July 25 in the United States.

No Limit Promotions’ Matt Rose, who represents Tszyu, stated during the press conference that the venue for their high-stakes middleweight match will be announced within three weeks. Several Australian outlets have reported Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Tszyu’s hometown, is the likely site.

Spence will fight for the first time since Terence Crawford dominated him in July 2023 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Crawford dropped Spence three times and stopped him in the ninth round of their long-awaited welterweight title unification fight. The 2012 U.S. Olympian hasn’t won since he defeated Yordenis Ugas by 10th-round technical knockout in April 2022 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Overcoming the Crawford defeat is the latest on a lengthy list of obstacles Spence encountered since he defeated Shawn Porter by split decision to become a unified welterweight champ in September 2019. He suffered various serious injuries in a one-car accident in October 2019 and later had surgery to repair a detached retina in his left eye, which caused the cancelation of his fight with Manny Pacquiao in August 2021.

Tszyu, 31, will try to re-establish himself as a top fighter in the junior middleweight division, as well.

The son of Hall of Famer and former junior welterweight champion Kostya Tszyu is 3-3 in his past six fights. Former IBF junior middleweight champ Bakhram Murtazaliev (23-1, 17 KOs) dropped Tszyu four times and upset him by third-round TKO in October 2024. That destructive defeat occurred between a pair of losses to WBC super welterweight champ Sebastian Fundora (24-1-1, 16 KOs), who edged Tszyu by split decision in a bloody battle in March 2024 and forced Tszyu to quit on his stool after the seventh round of their rematch last July 19 at MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Tszyu has won back-to-back 10-round unanimous decisions over Anthony Velazquez and Denis Nurja since the second Fundora fight.

Spence took exception to Tszyu attempting to shake his hand and hug him before their press conference began because of negative things Tszyu said about him on social media prior to their fight being officially announced Thursday.

“I was only gonna give him a shake and a hug because [this is] his last fight,” Tszyu said, “so just trying to make it nice and friendly. You know, so it is what it is.”