Boxing: Minding Tua in big, bad USA no job for the timid

By PETER JESSUP

Leading David Tua to the ring for his showdown with Lennox Lewis in Las Vegas this month, and the first face out of the dressing-room, will be security chief Glen Moore.

Moore has been with Tua since the boxer first turned professional, after his bronze medal win at the Barcelona Olympics.

The world heavyweight title fight will be Moore's most exciting job yet. He was coy on what it has to top, but his other jobs include guarding captains of industry, sports, movie and rock stars, and rescue missions to the former Russian republics.

Moore, aged 35, was a representative rugby league player for Canterbury when Kiwi coach Frank Endacott was in charge.

He grew into the security business when told he had a flair for it and is now general manager of the Australian-owned Security Seals Ltd and has his own operation, Main Event Security Management.

Moore and fellow Kiwi Jason Brott, who will be right behind Tua on fight day, went through the routine they will employ on November 12.

Moore takes the lead so he can speed up or slow down as the crowd or situation demands, and can deal with any trouble in front. Brott is behind Tua and manager Kevin Barry - "and he's big enough basically to pick them both up and get them out of there."

All fans will have been screened by a metal detector, but Moore will not be presuming there are no weapons in a country thick with guns.

It is a Monica Seles-type stabbing, a John Lennon-type shooting that they are watching for. But before that, Moore and his team will have checked into Tua's hotel 24 hours before he does to run bomb screens, to search for planted drugs, to wash and wipe every surface the fighter will touch to ensure it has not been contaminated.

They will oversee the cooking with Tua's personal chef to ensure no character like "Suzy" gets up to anything, as alleged by the All Blacks at the World Cup in South Africa in 1996.

On fight day they will be handy to Tua's corner to ensure no one tampers with his towels or water, or interferes with the instructions coming from trainer Ronnie Shields and manager Kevin Barry.

When the fight ends, whatever the outcome, Moore and his men will be in the ring "to put a blanket around David and separate him from any of Lewis' crowd - just for the seconds it takes until everyone's temperament slows down a bit."

There will be the usual television interviews in the ring, then Tua will be walked back to his dressing-room - "and no one will be touching David on the way in or on the way out."

Tua's mother, Noella, and father, Tuavale, will be in the Mandalay Bay casino.

It will be the first time they have travelled to one of his fights, but mum does not like seeing her son getting whacked, so she probably will not attend.

Moore is betting she will be one of the first people Tua will want to see afterwards.

Moore's job is to take the fighter where he wants, when he wants. There will be an appearance at the after-match function in the casino on what promises to be a long night.

Training in Auckland this week with mentor Kevin Tisch, an Army warrant officer now in the territorials, taekwondo and disarming-the-armed expert Moore promises a military-style operation to protect Tua.

Incidents like those involving Seles and Lennon: "That won't happen in the Tua camp."

Herald Online feature: Tua v Lewis