Boxing: Tua taking heavyweight build-up to new heights

By Peter Jessup

David Tua has taken to living at high altitude as he trains for the world heavyweight title shot he expects to come his way around July.

Tua and manager Kevin Barry are locked up in a top-floor Auckland central apartment, close to his gym and several swimming pools and out of the way of Mum's home cooking, as the fighter works to keep himself in prime condition.

And last week he installed a portable hyperbaric chamber that will allow him to follow the latest procedure of "living high, training low."

Training at altitude came into vogue after the Olympics in 1968, when the-then world record-holders in the 1500m, 5000m and 10,000m were all beaten in Mexico City (2309m above sea level) by athletes who lived or had trained at high altitude.

The theory followed was that training at altitude, where the air was less dense and therefore carried less oxygen, worked the body harder as fatigue set in earlier. The oxygen-carrying capacity of red blood cells was increased and the benefits were apparent when the athlete returned to sea level.

Now, sports physiologists know that as oxygen content decreases, so does the athlete's ability to train at peak levels. So the procedure now is to train at sea level, live at altitude, and with the aid of portable decompression chambers it's all possible without travel.

The unit set up in Tua's apartment is capable of giving him the returns of living at altitude for years, within the space of three months. All he has to do is sit in the inflated plastic chamber reading or listening to his music for a couple of hours each night after training.

Barry described his charge as "very focused" as the pair await the outcome of United States court action aimed at forcing titleholder Lennox Lewis into the ring.

The pair are yet to be given a date for hearing of the case they have filed in the district court in New Jersey. Now promoter Don King has filed identical action on behalf of his charge Henry Akinwande.

The British-based Akinwande was the agreed contender number one, Tua number two, in a deal forged before the Lewis-Holyfield reunification fight.

Barry said he expected Akinwande to go ahead with a fight against Holyfield while Lewis was lining up Michael Grant.

"That would leave us in a good position - we're still keen to fight Lewis in April [when the Grant fight is scheduled].

"If that doesn't happen we want the July spot."