Given the pre-fight drama, Joey Spencer picked the wrong day to be late to a media event. 

The visiting American casually strolled into The NEX (Newcastle Exhibition & Convention Centre) roughly 15 minutes into Friday’s press conference ahead of his ten-round, junior middleweight showdown with local hero Tim Tszyu. Spencer was unaware of, and then apologetic for, his tardiness, but made up for lost time by addressing the elephant in the room. 

Much of the buildup to their forthcoming headliner centered around the alleged promise of officiating neutrality. Spencer and his team insisted that they were assured at least two international judges for their Amazon Prime main event (Saturday, 10:00 p.m. ET) from Newcastle (Australia) Entertainment Centre. 

The matter was ultimately rectified, though the Linden, Michigan native wanted to clear the air on whether the fight was ever in jeopardy. 

“I was never going home,” Spencer insisted. “I was already ready to fight. There was some little clickbait stuff in the media that I was pulling out of the fight. That was never the case. We just needed to make sure that what we agreed to before the fight was signed, was ending up what was happening. This is something that we talked about three months ago.

“They got the judges straight. We’re just ready to go.”

While the matter was resolved, it quickly became the theme of Friday’s (local time) press conference. 

“You were the guys complaining about it,” Tszyu told Spencer. “Who was talking? Who was talking about going back on a plane back home? That wasn’t me. I was kicking back at home. This is what was told to me.” 

Spencer, 19-1 (11 KOs), felt the need to set the record straight. 

“You’ve been lied to,” insisted Spencer. “Think about your situation, your team lies to you. They need you to be all fired up. They’re worried about you. Everyone should be. 

“If [Tszyu] needs to manufacture and create this big drama that wasn’t even there, then obviously he’s worried about something. That’s what it is.”

Spencer will be making his international debut this weekend. The 25-year-old fringe contender has come up on Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) undercards as he enters his first true main event, which comes on his opponent’s home soil. 

Tszyu, 24-2 (17 KOs), is so entrenched in the home region that the promotion often refers to the city as ‘Tszyucastle.’ Spencer and his team are aware of the surroundings but have asked to level the playing field as they insist was agreed upon when the fight was finalized earlier this year. 

In the end, they were granted that wish. There remains debate, though, over the originally agreed-upon terms. 

“We’re fighting under New South Wales combat rules and that’s their rules,” No Limit Boxing’s George Rose, Tszyu’s promoter, explained. “We went out of our way to get WBO sanctioning so that you can get neutral judges. We flew people in on 48 hours’ notice. 

“You’re not a bad guy. You’re actually a nice guy and it’s something I don’t like because we’re looking forward to Timmy getting his hand raised. You put a lot of pressure on us to get the judges in. We brought the judges in and now we got a fight upon us on Sunday. There’s no complaining, we got neutral judges.”

Both fighters are in search of career redemption this weekend. 

Tszyu entered 2024 as an unbeaten WBO junior middleweight titlist. The worst year of his career ended with back-to-back defeats, including a crushing third-round knockout to unbeaten IBF titlist Bakhram Murtazaliev, 23-0 (17 KOs) last October 19 in Orlando, Florida. 

Spencer has won three straight entering this fight, though on the club level and against made-to-order opposition. Because of that, he remains defined by his one-sided, seventh-round knockout loss to Jesus Ramos in their March 2023 battle of unbeaten junior middleweights. 

“I feel like my journey has brought me to this point,” notes Spencer. “My opponent is a great opponent. He’s done great things and is extremely dangerous. At the end of the day, it’s not about him, it’s about me. I feel like I have what it takes to be at this level and win this fight.”

Jake Donovan is an award-winning journalist who served as a senior writer for BoxingScene from 2007-2024, and news editor for the final nine years of his first tour. He was also the lead writer for The Ring before his decision to return home. Follow Jake on and .