Boxing: Human side of the Terminator

Few New Zealanders see anything of David Tua outside the boxing ring. But like everyone, he has a private life. By PETER JESSUP

David Tua is living and breathing a new-found confidence as he takes time out after his 51s demolition of Obed Sullivan and sets himself for his last fight before a November meeting with world titleholder Lennox Lewis.

There is little damage after last Sunday's brief dust-up with Sullivan: the second knuckle of Tua's left hand is bigger and blacker than the rest after it hammered Sullivan's chin for the knockout.

He is self-assured, focused and contented, happy to talk more about his personal life than ever before, now keen for the world to meet the son he has kept quiet about for the two years and two months of little Kaynan's life.

His son's mother tapes Kaynan's talk daily and sends it to the United States when dad is away working.

"I don't want to miss out on any day he's growing up," Tua said.

The big South Aucklander has been spending plenty of time with his boy, and mixing that with light training at Les Mills' central city gym.

He is working only on the bike, treadmill and weights to keep himself at the fight peak he worked up to for the Sullivan bout.

He goes back to his Las Vegas base on June 18 and will be immediately into sparring against a range of opponents specifically chosen because they offer a Lewis-like offence.

Tua himself is focusing solely on his last warm-up fight next month against a yet-to-be-named opponent. Donovan "Razor" Ruddock was approached, but turned the Tua camp down.

A number of Las Vegas casinos are interested in hosting the bout, regardless of who is in the other corner.

"I'm not here to go silly," Tua said of his flying visit home.

"It's nice to be here but I don't want to forget the No 1 thing. If I let something get in the way it could all be lost."

He adds a brutal reminder of what his business is all about: "You can get killed in seconds if you forget what you're about."

Manager Kevin Barry has to focus beyond the July fight, with offers of deals now coming in daily. He is supremely confident his charge can do the job.

"Come November David will win the title, there's no doubt in my mind," he said.

"David has never felt this comfortable with himself. We've got Lewis at exactly the right time.

"Both of us have seen the fight in our sleep hundreds of times, going over various combinations of punches that will take him out. Dave has plenty of hunger for it."

Pre-Sullivan, Tua's sparring partners included Greg Pickram and Sam Hampton.

Pickram was chosen for his boxing skills. He has a faster jab than Lewis.

"He used the jab against David ... by the end he couldn't hit him with it," Barry said of their training camp at Prince Ranch.

Hampton, a heavyweight with a 20-6-7 record, was beaten by Sullivan over 12 rounds. He and Tua stood centre ring and bombed each other.

The two different styles reflected the fight Barry believed Sullivan would bring - jabbing to stay out of trouble, toe-to-toe if he had to.

Tua threw up to 120 punches a round in sparring, around 10 times more than the total he threw in combat.

Ahead of Lewis, Barry and trainer Ronnie Shields will call in two new sparring partners every fortnight, including Pickram and Hampton.

All will be around Lewis' size and they will be told to emulate the Briton's style - jab and move back.

Tua's aim will be to learn to move his head and avoid damage while waiting for the opening.

When Lewis goes for the uppercut, watch for Tua's devastating left hook.

"You know what you're going to get with Lewis," Barry said.

"We question his stamina. We're going to force him to fight.

"If David doesn't knock him out early, Lewis will have nothing left by round five."

There is plenty of confidence all round, right up to Tua's promoters, America Presents.

Already there is talk of satisfying calls from United States fans for a Tua fight with Mike Tyson: already there is a suggested headline for that - "TNT" - the general feeling being that the pair would march to centre-ring and slug till one drops.

Tua is not scared of Tyson. He admits he has learned plenty from the ex-champ, and little of it about boxing.

"I look at the fallen champs - they're missing something to be the complete person. I learn from it," he said.

Then he gets tongue-tied trying to explain how much family and his God mean to him, to say that seeing family in South Auckland keeps his feet on the ground - that he feels blessed to have that.

The 27-year-old has set up his father and brothers in the recycling business, Tua and Son, with purchase of a trucking company, the Polynesian commitment to family being everything to him.

"It's a really good thing to be able to support my family. Those ties are everlasting.

"Whatever I can give my parents back will never be enough to repay them for the sleepless nights, for what they did for me and my brothers and sister, for the life they made for us here," he said.

His origin is about to become a big talking point, with boxing writers in the United States claiming variously that Tua is American Samoan or just American, Western Samoan or a New Zealander transplanted to the States, that he is the one to bring the world heavyweight crown back to the United States.

The man himself is clear. He declares himself "a Samoan, a New Zealander, a citizen of the Pacific."

He talks of his schooling at Bader Intermediate in Mangere and of rugby days at Otahuhu College, and is not about to deny that Auckland formed him.

But on his bulging calf is a tattoo that pronounces him "100 per cent Samoan," given his parentage and birth in the islands.

The deep respect for his roots had him looking for hair gel yesterday as he sought to tone down the Sullivan fight look.

Tua has changed from ringlets to shaved head to a Don King-style cut over recent months, admitting that the change in appearance helped to break the boredom of training day-in, day-out.

He knew his father would not like it much and when he called home immediately after he smashed Sullivan, the comment from New Zealand was: "Great fight, but how many times did I tell you to get your hair cut?"

"I had an answer ready for dad long-distance, but today I need to comb it down out of respect for him. It's his house."