TIM Tszyu's career rebuild begins when facing American contender Joey Spencer in their Australia headliner from Broadmeadow this weekend and many suggest he's a faded version of the hot commodity who once held the WBO world junior-middleweight title.

Tszyu (24-2, 17 KOs), who suffered consecutive defeats by unified WBC/WBO titleholder Sebastian Fundora (22-1-1, 14 KOs) and IBF champion Bakhram Murtazaliev (23-0, 17 KOs) last year, faces jeopardy in his 10-round contest against a younger foe keen to produce a career-best showing.

It wasn't so long ago that the Australian was readying himself to face former unified welterweight champion Keith Thurman in his latest Stateside venture before the 36-year-old withdrew, less than two weeks out, after suffering a torn right bicep in training.

Their matchup will be rescheduled for July 6 on the Gold Coast, provided Tszyu gets the job done and avoids injury against Spencer (19-1, 11 KOs) though another prospective opponent was on the wishlist for 2024 before his damaging stoppage defeat by Murtazaliev.

An all-action encounter with Vergil Ortiz Jr (23-0, 21 KOs) was set for a bumper August 3 card in Los Angeles, the Riyadh Season event headlined by Terence Crawford vs. Israil Madrimov. Tszyu's doctor hadn't cleared him to resume full-contact sparring by the end of May and so, that bout also fell through.

While the appetite to see him face the world's best has been tempered drastically after a heavy stoppage defeat by Murtazaliev, who dropped him four times en route to a third-round stoppage win in October, there's renewed hope.

Ortiz rejected the notion Tszyu wasn't an elite boxer and insisted he could rebuild, during a conversation with The Ring in January. Now, his father and trainer Vergil Ortiz Sr has echoed that sentiment while leaving the door open to a future fight should the 30-year-old prove successful in his next few outings.

"I love Tim Tszyu. He reminds me of my boys, he's a good fighter, just because he lost two fights doesn't mean anything," Ortiz Sr told The Ring recently.

"Sometimes in boxing, you just get clipped... it happens. If you watch that last fight [against Murtazaliev], he started putting hands on the guy and got confident, it happens - same as Vergil against Kavaliauskas."

The first knockdown saw Tszyu caught clean with a left hand he didn't see coming and while his spirited efforts to continue were admirable, he couldn't recover as the Russian's relentless pressure ultimately told.

"He pulled his right hand just a little behind the chin, had his other hand up but got clipped. It was a good shot but he just couldn't recover. People don't realise, you don't need to punch hard to knock someone out, just hit them right on the button."

Many have retrospectively criticized Tszyu's team for thrusting him back into the spotlight in a big fight so quickly after the bloody 12-round battle with Fundora, where a gruesome scalp cut contributed to a compromised performance and his first professional defeat.

Murtazaliev looked beatable against Jack Culcay for the vacant IBF title before scoring an 11th-round knockout, though attributed that display to fighting during the holy month of Ramadan. Still, that didn't stop oddsmakers inserting Tszyu as the clear pre-fight favorite and the 32-year-old was anywhere from a +400 to +700 underdog before his statement victory.

Vergil Ortiz Sr pointed out the fact both of the Australian's defeats have come away from home soil and questioned whether he's taking too much stock in outside noise.

"Tim needs to not listen to everybody, do what got him there, don't overthink... just be yourself. You lost to a pretty good guy in Bakhram, but you don't need to fight super tough [opposition] all the time, there are two and three-division champions who've fought nobody.

He's very respectful, handles himself nicely and makes no excuses, I would go out of my way to call and give him advice, I don't know everything but have a boxing son too and always think, this is a sport... people don't care about you, you're getting your head bashed in for their excitement.

It's so easy for people to give up on you after one or two losses but I'm rooting for him, still think he has it and can be a world champion again, definitely. What if Bakhram goes and dominates everybody, what are people going to say then?"