Boxing: Home fans keep faith as Tua fights for credibility

By PETER JESSUP

David Tua still carries plenty of weight in New Zealand.

It seems that boxing fans, television bosses and advertisers are sure that time is on his side and that he will learn from his heavyweight championship loss to Lennox Lewis.

Tua's crucial showdown on March 24 with American Darnell Nicholson for the No 1 ranking and mandatory challenger status with the International Boxing Federation will screen live on TV3.

The station said advertisements were selling well and predicted a viewing audience of around 400,000.

Tua's 12-round showdown against Lewis last November drew New Zealand's biggest-ever TV audience - 1.42 million.

But Tua must win this time if he is to command major attention in future.

"Yeah, we do, I guess," is how TV3 executive producer of sport John McDonald puts it when asked if the channel still rated Tua.

"We're loathe to look at an outcome, but obviously if Tua can win, it puts him right back in line. No one's going to hype it this time. We're cautious."

Advertisements to promote the fight will not start to screen until next Wednesday.

TV3 sports production editor Nick Brown-Haysom said Tua was still an audience-puller. Advertising sales were "better than I expected they would be, and that's in a poor sales climate."

The TAB will again take bets on the Tua fight. Turnover was $2.1 million on the Lewis loss, but the agency has otherwise continued to shun boxing, citing the set-ups and corruption that have soured the sport as a reason.

Tua is now in camp in Las Vegas - not quite in hiding, but almost. He has avoided the media while training, as opposed to the avalanche of television and print media interviews he gave in November.

All requests are referred to America Presents media manager Fred Sternberg, who politely declines. There will be only the one conference-call promotion.

Manager Kevin Barry said Tua wanted to do his talking in the ring.

That did not stop him signing autographs at the Shane Moseley-Shannan Taylor fight at the Mandalay Bay casino in Las Vegas last week.

Also in the crowd were Lewis, Mike Tyson and Michael Grant. No supporters could get near them thanks to security entourages, but Tua had his photo taken with fans at least 50 times.

"He's still down to earth. He has not forgotten his family values and he doesn't pretend to be someone he's not," Barry said. "That makes him popular with everyone from grandmothers to kids."

The rib injury Tua suffered in sparring before the Lewis fight was not bothering him, Barry said.

Tua had been more disciplined than in the past at both training and diet. He had lost weight and would come under the 245lb at which he fought Lewis.

Barry knows that everyone's questions before the Nicholson bout will regard height and reach - will Tua fail again to get inside, and again cop a hiding and a points decision?

"I'm nervous about this," Barry said "It could be the end of Dave's career - we all know that, including Dave. He has to be more aggressive this time.

"We can't wait for this guy [Nicholson] to get settled, we can't wait for him to get brave. We have to be busier, we have to be first, throwing more punches, getting closer to the target."

Tua's new trainer, Joe Goosen, has had him working on new combinations and holding his hands higher in defence.

They had sparred 107 rounds up to yesterday, and more gym work than the Samoan Aucklander has done before.

Goosen planned to put Tua through the pain barrier, bring him to the point of failure in the gym, so that when he stepped into the ring he would have the confidence and knowledge to take whatever came.

Most of the $US4 million ($9.7 million) Tua earned for fighting Lewis remains unspent. He has agreed to a lease on a new, luxury inner-city apartment in Auckland, and a new Mercedes, with extras. The black car has a television and DVD backed with a $25,000 sound system.

In Vegas, nothing is the same as it was for the Lewis fight. The Texas Station casino seats 1700 as opposed to the Mandalay Bay's 13,500. But the fight is sold out, and will screen live across the US on Showtime.

This time there will be no drums, no Samoan warriors calling Tua into the ring this time. "We're back to basics, we've got a job to do," Barry said.

Tua's trademark black will change to red - shorts, jackets, cornermen's gear all blood-coloured because "it was time for a change."