Tim Tszyu and mum Natalia on life with champion boxer Kostya Tszyu

In four weeks Tim Tszyu will fight champion Joel Camilleri for the Australian super-featherweight title. But he has been battling much longer according to mum Natalia.

• Camilleri: “I’ll turn Australian boxing upside down”
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Son of Kostya.

That is the constant reminder Tim Tszyu has had ringing in his ears since birth.

But the mother who raised him when Kostya left the family and returned to his native Russia a decade ago has been just as influential in the formation of the fighter.

Natalia Tszyu revealed she spent nights crying into her pillow as a single mother raising three children: Tim, Nikita and Anastasia in Sydney.

Her split with Kostya was amicable and the legendary boxer still talks regularly with his children including Tim, who will headline his first Main Event pay-per-view show on May 15 after 12 straight wins to start his professional career.

Kostya Tszyu at the family home in Sans Souci in 2000. Image: Sam Ruttyn.

“My kids grew up without a father, the father is just like a picture on the wall,” Natalia told The Sunday Telegraph.

“They know Kostya Tszyu, but the father was like, never existed.

“I was a mother and a father. I gave my kids life, and love, but I never gave them a comfort zone.

“Because still, Australia is a foreign country for me, I don’t have family here.

“Sometimes if I needed to cry, I cried into my pillow. No one can hear me, no one can see me here.

“I still struggled so much, and the kids felt their mum’s struggle, but I survived.

“So I can’t say my kids are spoiled, they worked so hard. Every family has their problems.”

Tszyu’s boxing career was hard on his young family. Image: Milan Scepanovic

The family moved to Russia in 2008 but returned within months.

Kostya then moved back to his native country for good in 2012, and has several businesses in Moscow. He has been advising Tim throughout his career.

While Natalia had urged Tim not to follow his father’s footsteps into the brutal world of professional boxing, she only offered support once she understood she could not change his mind.

Tim after winning his third amateur fight against Zak Dad.

“Sometimes as parents, we need to let our kids go,” Natalia said.

“I grabbed him and I said, ‘Just go and study’. I filled out the enrolment application from my hand, I put him down to study marketing, he finished this one-year course, and after I said ‘Go to uni’.

“He went to UTS, he finished the first semester, and then we started fighting, he said he did not want to study, and he moved out from the house.

“He moved to one of my apartments in Rockdale, he was closer to the gym.

“He started visiting the gym more and more, he had a good connection with the people, trained himself, became a trainer himself for little kids and the other boxers, and then one day he said, ‘Mum, I’m going to fight’.

“I said ‘No Tim, you’re not going to fight’. But I changed my mind as a parent when I realised I can’t stop my child, so instead I have to support him.

Billy Dib with Tim Tszyu in 2016. Image: Justin Lloyd

“But I’d had enough of boxing, I could not handle the pressure to see my son boxing, so I called Glen Jennings who used to be Kostya’s manager and asked if he could look after my son.

“As a mother I could give so much, but I needed a man to help him.

“Glen said ‘OK, let’s try’. They’ve been together for two years and now he’s confirmed to be in the main event.

“I believe that boys need to be boys, and I would say proudly, my boys are confident.

“In life, in business, in your private life, in a relationship, one day you are going to get knocked down, but it’s about how you get up from that knockdown.

“What he has applied in his life with discipline, he will recover from punches, I don’t want him to be afraid of the punch because I know my kids will recover from punches, not just boxing but life in general.

“Never give up, move forward.”

Tim with mum Natalia Tszyu, ahead of his biggest fight yet. Image: Justin Lloyd.

Tim Tszyu, 24, will fight champion Joel Camilleri for the Australian super-featherweight title in four weeks at The Star casino.

He plans to claim the national belt, then defeat Dwight Ritchie and Michael Zerafa, before setting up a showdown with Jeff Horn at Parramatta’s Bankwest Stadium next year.

“I would love Tim to show to the world, particularly Russia where his father lives now, that we are typical immigrants,” Natalia said.

“We came from Russia to Australia, and now we’re representing Australia. I want him to make Australia proud to the whole world.

“Australia is a small country but we need more sparkle here, something like this.”

Something like the unflinching son of two fighters.

Originally published as Tim Tszyu and mum Natalia on life with champion boxer Kostya Tszyu