Boxing: Tua pounds out the hard yards in countdown to crucial fight

By PETER JESSUP

David Tua is working harder than he ever has in his nine-year pro boxing career as he works towards his must-win fight against Dannell Nicholson at the end of the month.

Tua's camp is preparing in the belief that the 1.9m Nicholson will fight the same way as world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis did in beating Tua last November.

"He's not going to trade punches," said Tua's manager Kevin Barry.

"He'll try to use his height and the last thing we can afford is a repeat of the Lewis fight. We're very conscious of that. Dave has to be more disciplined this time and he has been."

Tua sparred 10 rounds yesterday, making 55 so far. Trainer Joe Goosen has pushed him to move forward more to force his sparring partners to throw punches and thus leave themselves open.

"He's been absolutely exhausting them and that's what we want him to do against Nicholson - be more relentless, wear him down," Barry said.

In contrast to the big public exposure he had leading up to the Lewis fight, Tua has this time remained at his Prince Ranch camp. His promoters, America Presents, have handled the media.

"The interest in him is still there and we expect to have to do our share to promote the fight as it gets closer, but right now the focus is fully on training," Barry said.

Tua would be 104.3kg (230lb) if he ever had another shot at the big-time, Barry said. Tua had already dropped more than 4.5kg (10lb) from his Lewis fight-weight but would come in around 106.5kg (235lb) for the Nicholson bout.

The Tua camp would watch Evander Holyfield's re-match with John Ruiz at the Mandalay Bay casino this weekend, and the middleweight fight between Shane Moseley and Australian Shannon Taylor next weekend to keep Tua's mind on the job.

"We don't have the luxury of looking ahead."

Barry said they would love to fight Holyfield, but Tua had to concentrate on beating Nicholson because if he failed there might never be another big bout.

Barry has been disappointed by comments from sacked trainer Ronnie Shields over the Lewis loss.

Shields claimed that the rib damage Tua suffered in sparring before the Lewis fight was a sham and that Tua just freaked out in the big fight.

"I was disgusted at that," Shields said. "The rib didn't bother him. I asked him between rounds."

Barry said the rib injury happened. "Ronnie knows that, but I don't want to get into a slanging match with him."

Shields claimed that Barry "told me it was my fault David lost the fight, my fault he weighed 245 pounds, and that neither David or himself knew what the game plan was.

"Are you really going to try and tell me that both of them were in camp for more than 10 weeks and didn't know what the game plan was?"

Shields said the biggest disappointment about getting dumped was that Tua did not make the call himself.

"If he wanted to make a change, that's fine. But after eight years and the relationship David and I had, he should have been man enough to make the call."