10.01.05 – By Kostya Tszyu: Dear Tszyu Crew, I am very pleased to be able to tell you today that I have decided to face Ricky Hatton in my next fight, which will be held in Manchester, England at 4am in the early hours of Sunday morning 5th June 2005. The fight will be shown live around the world in many countries including the USA on Showtime and in Australia and Russia.
I am looking forward to this match and I am very excited. If you look at my website now you will see the results of the poll where I asked you, who I should fight next. Your first choice was undisputed welterweight champion Cory Spinks, but we know that it is very hard to make this fight happen at this stage. Your second choice was Ricky Hatton. I looked at the demand for this fight from the Tszyu Crew and we made it happen. It is an exciting time for me again. I made the decision to not step aside and still continue to do what I do best..
I always take one fight at a time. I don’t know when I will retire. If another big challenge comes onto my horizon, I am going to say, ‘let’s do the job’. I am living a healthy life. I have a great family and great friends around me. Before Christmas, I spent time in Moscow and it was so pleasing to see the Tszyu Crew there. You can see the photos in my website gallery and there are so many smiling faces. The most important thing I find now in life is that you have to be happy no matter what you do. That’s why I said, when they asked me to fight in March, it is not going to happen, because I would have to train through Christmas.
This fight with the undefeated Ricky Hatton will be my first contest in England. It will be very interesting. With Sharmba it was unfinished business, which needed to be finished. With Ricky it is a big challenge in front of me. He is a new guy. He is younger. He is nine years younger than me. It is a big difference. But I do believe that the way I am going to train, no one trains like this. That is going to be a big factor.
I am going to be very busy from now till the start of my training camp at the beginning of March. I am working on a new exercise book and DVD package and will also be making some public appearances around Australia. This coming Wednesday 12th January 2005, I will be at the Sportsco Bankstown Store in NSW, Australia between 1pm and 2pm. If you are close by, please stop in to say hello.
As I am writing this message to you on Monday evening here in Sydney, I am reading on the Internet a newspaper report in the UK stating that Frank Warren is not happy that I have announced the fight with Ricky. All I can say in response is that we have done a deal. If Frank Warren wants to change it, then the fight is off and we’ll start again. But you all know that I have never let talk such as this worry me.
Remember the Tszyu Crew rules always!
Your champion,
Kostya Tszyu
Undisputed Super Lightweight Champion of the World