Boxing: 'Smokin' Joe' says Tua can take title

By PETER JESSUP

LOS ANGELES - Some famous names, including former champion "Smoking Joe" Frazier, are saying David Tua has the armour to take the title.

Frazier wants Tua to win because they are the same size and he likes the underdog, having always been one himself.

"If I stayed on the outside and tried to box someone like Muhammad Ali, I was going to get whipped because of the reach thing," Frazier said. "You've got to wait for your man to commit himself, with a jab or a right hand. That's when you jump on him.

"If he never commits, if he waits on you, a guy like me is in trouble. But when your man is throwing punches you roll, you slip, you work your way inside.

"Do that and you can feel what the other guy is all about. My idea was if he touched me, I had to touch him right back, only harder."

Tua had to be the more determined fighter, Frazier said.

"That's what I'll be interested in seeing - how bad does Tua want it? If he wants it bad enough, he can go get it.

"A tall guy like Lennox Lewis needs more room to punch and the thing is, Tua really doesn't have to punch up to Lewis. He can wait for him to come down to try to get him - sooner or later that's what's going to happen."

Frazier believes Tua will get inside, provided he rolls his shoulders to slip the Lewis shots.

"If you slip that jab, the tall guy is there to be hit. But you can't let him make mistakes and get away with it. You've got to make him pay.

"Lewis has a good right hand, a decent jab - those are his strengths and if you beat his strengths you beat him."

Frazier's advice to Tua: "Stay close and when Lewis misses, go to the body. If you kill the body, the head dies, too.

"Hit a man to the body hard enough and often enough and he stops moving, his arms come down, then you've got to hit him," Frasier said.

Briton Audley Harrison, the Sydney Olympic gold medallist in the super-heavyweight division and Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games gold winner, believes Tua can win.

"Lennox Lewis is a great boxer," he said. "He has an array of punches that Tua will find hard to deal with. Lennox has been there, done that 10 times in world championship fights and this is Tua's first."

But Harrison believes that if Tua handles the pressure of the big occasion, sticks to the game plan prescribed by trainer Ronnie Shields and gets his big shots off, he could win.

"He has a lot of power, no doubt."

Lewis' height advantage would help, Harrison said.

"I fought a New Zealand guy much like Tua at the Commonwealth Games [Faii Falemoe, beaten out of a medal spot by Harrison], and it was a pretty easy fight for me.'

Eddie Fuchs, aged 80, a trainer through the Ali-Frazier-Foreman era, said he did not go to fights much any more, "but I'm going to this one. I expect it's going to be a great fight."

The winner? "Who knows, that's what's great about the sport."

Jeff Fenech, Australian Olympic and world champion, said Lewis' only chance was to come out and hurt Tua early.

"Lewis' power early is the danger," Fenech said. "David has a huge 100 per cent committed heart - [Lewis] won't hurt David. I honestly believe David will knock him out."

Bob "the Colonel" Sheridan, who will call the fight - his 636th world title bout - for a television audience of around 400 million, all outside the United States, said that if Tua did not win the title, then he expected he would lift it later.

Sheridan has his money on a first-round knockout to Tua and stands to win $US2500.

Stacey McKinley, Tyson's trainer, believes Lewis will win, "but I can see an upset. This guy [Tua] has a lot of power, and I wouldn't be at all surprised by an upset."

Tyson's minder, Steve "Crocodile" Fitch, added: "Who cares who wins? This is just a sideshow. This business is dead without Mike."

Herald Online feature: the Tua fight

The Herald Online is ringside for the countdown to David Tua's tilt at the world heavyweight boxing title. Reporter Peter Jessup and photographer Kenny Rodger bring you all the news, inside information and pictures, leading up to this Sunday afternoon's showdown in Las Vegas.