Boxing: Billy: eat what I say, David

David Tua's diet is being meticulously controlled by a man he once worked with, as PETER JESSUP reports from Las Vegas.

The sous chef at major hotels does not normally talk to kitchenhands other than to tell them what to do, but it was at Auckland's Pan Pacific that dishwasher David Tua met the man who now cooks his every measured meal.

Billy Statham was a fan from the start. He and others from the hotel went to Tua's fights when he was little known in New Zealand, let alone Las Vegas.

This year the now cashed-up Tua rang his old buddy to ask him to move into camp and keep him on the right food as he builds up to his world heavyweight title fight against Lennox Lewis next month.

Fiji-born Statham had just started his own business, Food for Thought Nutrition, catering to some of the All Blacks and Auckland Blues, but moved to Las Vegas earlier this year and is now at the boxer's beck and call.

"It's come full circle, but we were always friends - he's my boss now," Statham said.

"However, we clicked when we first met and it's never been like a boss-employee relationship."

The 40-year-old is responsible for keeping Tua on a lean and mean diet, including all manner of supplements, cutting out the fat.

"I had to cull his grocery list pretty sharply," he said.

Telling Tua he cannot have ice cream is not a job for the weak. Statham's secondary role here is as bouncer, looking after the Tua team when they go into Vegas for promotions, shopping, or a night out.

"David knows what to put into his body. We've talked about it like we do cars - you don't put peanut oil in a Ferrari. He's very focused on what he needs to do to win the title."

Statham is first out of bed each day, at 6 am, to prepare breakfast for the big boxer, middleweight Masoe Maselino, who is also training here, the Barry brothers, Kevin and Bryan, who train and manage the boys, a TV3 documentary crew here to record the build-up for history, and sometimes the Herald. He is good, and so is the food.

Each meal starts with either of the boxers leading the group in saying grace, God being a big part of their day.

Breakfast for the fighters is porridge, 20g of raisins, 20g of low-fat yoghurt - the only dairy product they are allowed - 100g of melon and six egg whites whipped into a supplement shake. That is between 350 and 400 calories all-up at each meal. Protein bars make up a total daily intake of around 4000 calories.

The training takes out around 2500-3000. The rest sustains his muscle building through the workout routine.

Tua was on mountains of fillet steak and pasta while building muscle. Now that is done, he is on skinless chicken and rice, and salads.

He has another shake after morning training - usually a run or weights - then lunch with another vitamin shake. Dinner is skinless chicken and rice again.

Statham's recipe book has been tested as to how many ways poultry can be served without fat loading or getting boring.

There is also a dinner-plate of pills for Tua to swill down with his shakes.

Included in the mineral intake are electrolyte to replace fluid, blood glucose and muscle glycogen after training; calcium to replace what Tua would normally get from dairy food; calcium methybutyrate monohydrate to aid muscle building and fat burning; whey and glutamine containing all 22 amino acids; antioxidant made from grape seed and green tea extracts; and hydroxogen chromium picolate for energy and to decrease carbohydrate craving.

Every now and then Tua calls out for a large plate of mashed potatoes, sometimes late at night.

The diet and hard work combined are clearly working.

His chest is more defined now, his muscles harder. The size is there without any sign of flab.

His daily test for skin-fold fat shows around 15 per cent body fat, which will come down over the next few weeks, but not to a point where it will diminish his awesome power.

"I'm here for him whatever he wants, whenever. Except ice cream - I've had to confiscate that," Statham said.

And the chocolate biscuits that visitors bring from New Zealand?

"The rest of us dispose of those."

For drinks, Tua has grapefruit or fruit-punch cocktail juices, and coffee as a diuretic.

He has never drunk alcohol, barring a kahlua and milk.

Tua must be looking forward to the weigh-in three days before the fight because from then on he will be allowed to eat what he wants - and taro and coconut milk dishes from his Samoan homeland will be high on that list.

Statham has never wondered if he has done the right thing in leaving his new business in the hands of his helpers.

"When David rang and asked me to come I didn't have to think about it for long.

"We're making history here. I wouldn't have missed it for anything," he said.

The enormity of his job hit home when Tua went to watch another fight in Las Vegas.

"The announcer was talking and when we entered the whole crowd stood and chanted 'Tua, Tua.'

"Everyone wants a piece of him now. Everyone here is treating us with respect. But Dave is still one of the boys. We keep his feet firmly on the ground."

Statham's feet are off the ground. "Every day I wake up and go 'wow."'