The 36-year-old former unified welterweight champion hasn’t been seen in the ring since getting stopped in the ninth round by Terence Crawford in July 2023. Spence wasn’t sure if he’d come back, but once he decided to return, the last thing he wanted to do was take a soft touch.

So instead of facing a pushover in his first fight in nearly three years, Spence will take on former WBO junior middleweight champion Tim Tszyu on July 26 at Afterpay Arena in Sydney, Australia.

Tszyu respects the way Spence is going about his business, but the former 154-pound champ guaranteed the result won’t be a favorable one for him.

“To a certain extent,” Tszyu told The Ring when asked if it surprised him that Spence isn’t having a warmup fight first. “But I know the type of fighter he is. He likes to take on hard challenges, but I’m gonna give him that regret feeling. You should’ve taken a warmup fight.”

During much of the buildup, Spence (28-1, 22 KOs) has been saying all of the right things. He knows that he didn’t look like his normal explosive self against Crawford and desperately wants to prove that he isn’t a shot fighter.

Tszyu is practically in the same boat. The 31-year-old Sydney native is just 3-3 in his last six fights, though he has won two fights in a row.

Now, with that sort of confidence, Tszyu (27-3, 18 KOs) wants to nab the biggest win of his career. In terms of how he’ll go about doing that, he plans on pushing Spence to his physical limit.

“The biggest thing for me is to test his heart,” Tszyu continued. “How bad does he want it? When you’ve been there, done that in the sport, you’re sort of like, ‘Do I need to do this? Do I need to keep on going?’ I want to test when he starts talking to himself.”

The event headlined by Spence and Tszyu can be seen as part of DAZN’s Ultimate plan ($44.99 per month or $449.99 per year in the United States). Without the plan, it can be purchased on DAZN for $74.99.