Tim Tszyu has demolished the best Australia has to offer - now for the world stage.
Even before he easily took care of his latest challenger Steve Spark in less than three rounds at the Newcastle Entertainment Centre on Wednesday night, the unbeaten Australian champion was eyeing off a potential world title shot.
At the very least, his next opponent will be a world class international fighter with Tszyu's manager Glen Jennings and promoters Matt and George Rose deep in negotiations with potential rivals including three former world champions.
"It's really exciting and it's a bit of a milestone for us tonight because technically, we are done domestically and we are moving onto the international stage," Jennings said after the Spark fight.
"It will be international and it will be most likely a top five and quite possibly a former world champ. Right now the names that we are deep in [negotiations] with are Liam Smith from the UK, Danny Garcia is now on our list and Tony Harrison from the USA.
"Matty and I have been going at this for a while now and it's very close so we should be confident.
"I think George we are happy to say we are going to try and get this on in Australia in September. It's a great feeling for all of us."
George Rose said the ultimate goal is to have Tszyu fight for a world title in Australia with current world champions Jermell Charlo and Brian Castano facing off against each other in a super welterweight unification bout on July 17 in the USA.
"Tim is the number one ranked [challenger] in the WBO and this win tonight should push him to number two in some of the other bodies," Rose said.
"With that being said, he is the highest ranked super welterweight in all the major organisations and he has got to be pushing for that world title challenge.
"I mean it's a fight that the top guys wouldn't want because Tim is a dangerous guy - he's the best super welterweight in the world. But that's what we want, we want that world title fight but if we can't get that [yet], we'll knock off another international."
Rose would not be drawn on where the next fight will be held and has not completely ruled out a stadium fight in Newcastle but Tszyu has clearly out-grown the Newcastle Entertainment Centre.
His promoters No Limit Boxing will likely put the venue out to tender and there will be no shortage of interest from around Australia, such is his drawing power now.
"We've proved we can bring international opponents here and the next thing is finding where Tim is going to have his next fight," Rose said. "He is the superstar of Australian boxing so where do we hold the next fight for him.
"There are a lot of great venues across Australia and Tim has made it very clear he can fight anywhere and we need to go where the crowds can come and get behind Tim.
"His next fight, he'll be representing the whole of Australia on the world stage so it could end up anywhere."
