By PETER JESSUP
David Tua and his camp claimed home ground advantage yesterday after Lennox Lewis and his backers agreed to stage their world heavyweight boxing title fight in Las Vegas.
The fight, for the International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Council belts, will be in the early evening of November 11
(November 12, NZ time) at the new 13,000-seat Mandalay Bay Casino on the Strip in Las Vegas.
Tua hopes New Zealand and Samoan supporters - some from here and many resident in the United States - will fill a block-booked seating area for his fans and provide solid support as he fights for the world's top sports crown.
The bout will screen here on free-to-air television about 3 pm on Sunday, November 12.
Tua and his manager, Kevin Barry, are hoping TV3 wins the auction for local rights, given that network's support of him in the past.
The pair were yesterday heavily into groundwork fitness and stamina preparation for the big event - the only distraction being the minor bump with another gym user in the carpark at his central Auckland gym.
That gave Tua and manager Kevin Barry a sense of perspective. In the United States, no one would get near the heavyweight champion or No 1 contender, let alone get close enough to exchange heated words over a minor scrape in a carpark.
The woman who banged into Tua's car, ZB advertising saleswoman Sandie Evans, later remodelled her 10-year-old Saab on her own garage after posing for shots for a Herald photographer.
While driving forward into her garage, she scraped the left rear side and ripped a plastic guard from the wheel arch, but laughed off the second scrape.
