Boxing: Tua-Rahman return fight set for the New Year

By PETER JESSUP

David Tua will this week sign for a rematch with former world champ Hasim Rahman to determine the mandatory challenger for the International Boxing Federation title.

The IBF belt has been discarded by WBC and WBA champ Lennox Lewis because he failed to meet No 1 challenger Evander Holyfield.

Holyfield will now meet Chris Byrd next month, and the winner of that match will fight the victor from the Tua-Rahman match, to be held early next year.

The IBF sanctioned the two-match arrangement to settle titleholder and mandatory challenger some months ago, but the deal did not come without pressure from promoter Don King, who wants to sign Tua to his stable of heavyweights.

"He's been calling every day and sending his friends in Las Vegas around to see us. He wanted to promote David's next few fights," Tua's manager, Kevin Barry, said.

"People in this business get overawed because of who he is. But King ties all the fighters up and has them sitting there.

"He didn't offer us anything we couldn't get for ourselves."

Eventually, King had to relent, or he would have lost control of the title-decider.

Tua is in the fortunate position of not being signed to any promoter, although he has lately had a good relationship with Cedric Kushner Promotions and the HBO network.

They would appear to be frontrunners for his signature.

Barry had not heard from King yesterday, but heard from everyone else, including the IBF, that King and Rahman had signed, agreeing to a 50/50 financial split from the bout.

"We made it clear money was not an issue despite the fact David is coming off two wins [Fres Oquendo and Michael Moorer] and Rahman is coming off two losses [Lewis and Holyfield].

"It's an extremely important fight for us on the road to another title shot," Barry said.

Next week, Tua meets the unheralded Russell Chasteen, 19-5 (13 knockouts), from Louisville, Kentucky, in a scheduled 10-round fight at the Trump Casino in Atlantic City.

The event is labelled A Fistful Of Dollars and features eight heavyweights in a series of fights for a US$100,000 top prize, but Tua is not part of that.

Barry said Tua needed the fight to keep busy while working to improve his speed and keep his weight down.

Barry is not expecting much from Chasteen, but it is a condition of the Rahman deal that Tua wins.

King, Cushner and others will now bid for the Tua-Rahman fight rights, or the pair could run a joint promotion.

The bout may be a co-attraction on the John Ruiz-Roy Jones jnr fight at the Las Vegas Thomas and Mack Centre on March 1.

The 31-year-old Rahman is 35-4 (29 knockouts). Tua, 29, is 41-3 (36 knockouts) and as usual gives away height but not weight.

There is bad blood between the fighters after Tua beat the Baltimore-born Rahman in a round-10 knockout in December 1998.

Rahman was stunned by a ninth-round punch he claims came after the bell.