Boxing: Colonel Bob takes heart in Tua fight

Bob Sheridan. Photo / NZ Herald

Most of us, after suffering a heart attack, would probably have cried off attending the infamous Evander Holyfield vs Mike Tyson heavyweight boxing re-match the next day - let alone call the fight over a microphone to an audience of millions.

Even fewer would have the force of personality to sign out of hospital the next day, somehow talk a cardiologist into riding shotgun - with a defibrillator for emergency's sake - and then get drawn into the high stress and controversy of a global sports event (this was the bout where Tyson bit off part of Holyfield's ear in the third round in 1997, sparking something of a riot).

But 'Colonel' Bob Sheridan, the renowned boxing commentator who will be in New Zealand in October to call the David Tua vs Shane Cameron fight, has - you might say - the gift of the gab; enough to persuade a gobsmacked cardiologist to sit through his first boxing match and then rush Sheridan back to hospital for an angioplasty that same night.

Sheridan could, in fact, talk the hind leg off a donkey and this larger-than-life individual (no sense in letting a mere heart attack slow you down) will lend the Tua-Cameron fight some credibility by being here to call it.

Billed extravagantly as "The Fight Of The Century", the fight has suffered a little from being delayed because of Cameron's injured hand and a change in venue to Hamilton's Mystery Creek.

The undercard was also hit - the mainstays have yet to be named - and more than a few critics are wondering if the fight is being over-hyped in boxing's inflated way.

Tua hasn't fought for nearly two years and Cameron, although ranked high in at least two of boxing's many and ridiculously confusing rankings, has yet to beat anyone of true international note. Tua, even though he has the higher pedigree, isn't ranked at all after his long absences.

Sheridan, perhaps risking another heart attack, is vigorously convinced that Tua, in particular, could still rank highly in the world's rather depleted heavyweight ranks.

But first, let's deal with Sheridan giving his heart attack the big right hook and the fact that, years later, he is still with us and hasn't joined the ranks of past commentators.

"People find it a little strange, what I did, I know," he says.

"But at the time, that fight was of a magnitude and importance that I just did not want to miss it. I mean, we're talking Thriller In Manila or Zaire [two of Muhammad Ali's greatest fights].

"I'd had heart attacks before and you come to understand them and what's happening to you. I knew this attack would require angioplasty - which is where they basically shove aside all the gunk which is blocking your arteries."

Once that was done, Sheridan immediately started to feel better and fancied going to the fight. Against medical advice, he signed himself out of the hospital, but not before talking Dr Ram Singh, his cardiologist, into coming to the fight with a defibrillator.

"I knew what was going on and knew that, if there were going to be any problems with an angioplasty, they often showed themselves in the first 24 hours," says Sheridan.

It is not known what Ram Singh thought of his very first boxing match - which contained an audience of thousands and a decibel level that would injure hearing even before Tyson bit off a chunk of Holyfield's ear and spat it on the ground, creating an enormous hullabaloo. But his evening must have been interesting and it is hard to avoid a mental image of a leading physician cuddling his defibrillator and watching open-mouthed, as two gnarled warriors set about physically damaging each other.

After the fight, Sheridan didn't feel very well, went back to hospital where Singh gave him another angioplasty - after which he has felt as sound as a David Tua left hook.

"I wanted to call this fight in New Zealand because, out of all the places I have been to throughout the world, I love New Zealand and the friends I have made there.

"This is not a fight which will stir a lot of interest in the US or even Europe and it may not stir that much interest internationally - but, boy, I know what it means in New Zealand."

Sheridan also doesn't subscribe to the theory that Tua, whom he calls a friend, is over the hill.

"Look, the last thing to go on a fighter is his punch. David Tua is only 36 - and that's not old for a heavyweight these days - and, let's face it, he has made a career out of that left hook.

"I look at the rankings these days and I see quite a few highly ranked fighters that David could knock over if he's fit and focused and he has that left hook even 75 or 80 per cent of what it was in his prime.

"People love heavyweights who have a knockout punch and that's what many people think the division still lacks."

Sheridan says he thinks Tua could beat Cuba's Juan Carlos Gomez (9th in the WBC rankings), Uzbeki fighter Timor Ibramigov and feels he could take Kazakhstan's well-performed Oleg Maskaev and even WBA 'champion in recess' Ruslan Chagaev.

Nikolai Valuev, the 7-foot (2.13m) WBA champion who was due to fight Chagaev until the latter was ruled out, might prove too big and too tall for Tua who has had problems with big boxers in the past and the US's Samuel Peter would be a fascinating contest - "It'd be a slugfest; a real war" - according to Sheridan.

"So that's what this fight is about for David," he says. "It's a big deal locally but it's also about seeing whether he can begin to get back somewhere near where he was in the world rankings."

But, no matter what Tua or Cameron achieve, it's unlikely they can say they KO'd a heart attack.