"I thought he was his dad," Hunt said.

"But he's a bit taller, a nice guy nonetheless. He's promoting Australian boxing to the world."

Today there can be no mistake, because Tszyu 2.0 is now the face of Australian boxing with an unblemished 16-0 record, and he will headline the first Sydney stadium fight since 2006 against Bowyn Morgan (21-1) on Wednesday night.

Hunt finds himself on the fight poster alongside the star he once thought was the legendary Kostya Tszyu, because the former mixed martial artist takes on ex-rugby league star Paul Gallen in the co-main event.

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Defiant New Zealander Morgan intends to knock Tszyu out and leave the thousands who filter into Western Sydney Stadium speechless, adamant "it doesn't go the full 10, that's for sure".

Yet Tszyu seems unshakeable. When asked at a promotional event at Bondi Beach on Sunday what comes next if he wins, he answered with both conviction and a correction.

"When I win my fight, it's all up to my promoter," Tszyu said.

"Look, he's going to come with one game plan. That's to move forward, inside boxing. That's what I'm expecting. If he wants to do anything else, I'm ready for anything else.

"You can't judge, once you get in the ring it's a whole different story. You can make a game plan, you can create scenarios, but once you get in the ring, I'm telling you, it's different.

"I'm just excited to fight. The fact that there are not many fighters that get to fight in these times, especially in front of all of Australia, all of the world, it's a blessing."

Tszyu's confidence in himself rarely, if ever, waivers. But ask him how the heavyweight bout between Hunt and Gallen pans out and he is sitting on the fence.

To borrow a line from Stone Cold Steve Austin, Hunt says "I'm going to give him a hiding, that's the bottom line". Former NSW Blues captain Gallen simply believes "I win the fight".

"I knew there was going to be animosity between us in the build-up, we're going to get in there and punch the shit out of each other, we're going to fight each other," Gallen said.

"There's going to come a time when someone is going to say something that's going to annoy the other guy, and someone is going to bite back. That's what has happened in this case.

"It's all been genuine, we haven't had to fake it, we haven't had to try to sell the fight. This fight sells itself."