Australian star Tim Tszyu departed for the United States on Monday, as he continues his preparations for a January 29th showdown with IBF, WBC, WBA and WBO junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo.

The fight is slated to take place in Las Vegas, with Showtime televising in the United States. The unbeaten fighter will train for the remainder of his camp in Los Angeles.

Tszyu remains a big underdog, but he feels confident in his ability to shock Charlo.

“I’ve got a big task ahead of me, there’s no denying that,” Tszyu told WA Today. “But I’m no stranger to this. I accept any challenge and this is the biggest challenge there is out there right now.

“I’d say there’s a little bit of nerves. But it’s just kill or be killed right now. I’m going hunting. This is the time for me to take things to that next level. I’ve done the groundwork here in Australia, I went to Thailand [and] got my conditioning sorted, so now it’s just making plans for the fight, working on skills, and just levelling up.”

Tszyu made his United States debut earlier this year, when he picked up a tough decision win over Olympian Terrell Gausha.

He wanted to arrive in the United States well ahead of time, to focus all of his energy on camp.

“I get to eliminate distractions,” Tszyu said. “I haven’t had that for a long time. I feel like I haven’t achieved nothing until I get these four belts around my waist. For me, I haven’t done nothing yet.

“Once I defeated Jeff Horn, it sort of became, I don’t know, boring. If you’re surrounded by people that are obviously a little bit higher in class, you grow as a fighter ... we’ve got plenty of talent here in Australia but not as much [as America].”