Boxing: Beaten Tua refuses to quit

By PETER JESSUP

David Tua's loss to Chris Byrd in Las Vegas yesterday was not the devastating blow that Lennox Lewis landed on him and Tua has no thoughts of terminating his 38-win, three-loss professional career.

The United States critics rated Tua's performance as a lot better than the one he put in against Lewis last November.

Their question was not whether he had a future but what the severe physical trimming down he underwent for the Byrd bout had cost him late in the fight when he appeared to run out of puff.

The 12-round points decision to the Michigan 31-year-old wins Byrd a shot at the IBF title, as guaranteed by the US District Court in New Jersey, regardless of the outcome of holder Hasim Rahman's rematch with Lewis.

"We have to take this on the chin," Tua's manager Kevin Barry said as his charge soaked out the bruises.

"We thought this performance was a huge improvement on the Lewis fight. David gave it 100 per cent. This guy [Byrd] was very awkward."

Tua will have a few weeks off, returning to Auckland on Thursday, while Barry remains in Vegas to plot his fighter's path with promoters America Presents.

"He'll stay in everyone's top 10," Barry said, confident of retaining rankings in the major IBF, WBC and WBA organisations. "This won't hurt too much, he won't drop out. He has terrific credentials. This was a totally different fight from Lewis.

"Dave has no thoughts of dropping out. What we have to do is re-group and get Dave back. We will put him in position for the title again and that's where he wants to be."

Although conceding victory to the judges' scores, Tua reckoned that he had gone forward and delivered enough to win.

"Thank God no one was seriously hurt," Tua said. Then, "If I wasn't coming forward and making punches there wouldn't have been a fight."

He had left no doubt that he would be back. Tua said he had learned again.

"I have to go back to the drawing-board and come back better."

US radio and TV commentator, and former pro boxer, James Smith said he had thought that the bout might go to 12 rounds if Byrd could take a punch, and he did.

"But Byrd was there to be hit and Tua didn't do it. I wondered about his tactics," Smith said.

He said Tua had landed the harder punches - Byrd's had been more "shoeshine".

He agreed that it was a devastating loss for Tua but said he had the opportunity to come back better educated and harder.

"He has to improve but he's young, at a stage in his career where he can."

Smith, who fought under Chris Dundee - brother of Muhammad Ali's renowned trainer Angelo Dundee - wondered whether Tua's build-up had been right.

Bob "The Colonel" Sheridan, who has called hundreds of world title fights in various weight divisions, was puzzled as to why Tua's body shots did not score and did not break down Byrd.

"Byrd was clearly in tremendous physical shape and he fought the fight of his life. Tua needs better footwork and some more angles."

Sheridan, who called the fight for Sky TV, said he hoped Tua was not disappointed "because he has to stay at this level".

"There's a lot of guys in the top 10 that would lose to Byrd. .

"He tried to wear Byrd down, he didn't panic. Others didn't want a bar of Byrd because they knew they couldn't get near him - he's a very difficult opponent. Tua is a smaller guy and their styles didn't match."

There were still "good fights out there," Sheridan said but they would be well down on the multi-millions that Tua had been in line for if he had won yesterday.