Boxing: Tua now tackling Lewis outside the ring

By PETER JESSUP

Heavyweight David Tua's next fight will be in the New Jersey District Court as he seeks an order to force undisputed world champion Lennox Lewis to recognise his claims to a title shot.

Tua's managers have filed civil action against Lewis and the International Boxing Federation, which lists him as its No 1 contender, in the United States this week and expect a hearing within a fortnight.

The big guy from South Auckland has stepped up to the big time now, this action and his next fight set to reap him multi-million-dollar returns, with the world of opportunity open should he get - and win - the title fight he wants.

He has signed conditionally with major promoter America Presents and, though no one would tell yesterday what the contract was worth, the fighters most likely to be his next opponents - Lou Savarese and Frans Botha - are in the $US1 million bracket.

America Presents is also fighting his case with the three major sanctioning bodies, and Tua's manager Kevin Barry said yesterday that case was indisputable.

It will run like this. Before the second Lewis/Holyfield bout in November, in which the Briton united all three titles, the two boxers and all three bodies agreed that the next run of challenges would go in the order the three organisations' constitutions dictated, regardless of who won.

That meant WBA then IBF then WBC.

The WBA champion is Henry Akinwande, who has hepatitis and is barred from fighting for another year. Other factors making this match-up unlikely: Akinwande was disqualified for holding against Lewis at Lake Tahoe in 1997, Lewis said he would not fight Akinwande again, US promoters and cable television are not interested in a rematch with "Huggin' Henry."

That leaves Tua, who became IBF No 1 when he beat Hasim Rahman in December 1998.

IBF rules say the titleholder must meet the No 1 challenger within 12 months. The Lewis/Holyfield reunification bout that ended in a draw and the subsequent rematch forced a delay, but on January 5 this year the IBF told Lewis he must fight Tua before April 13.

"The basis of our claim is to seek injunctive relief to have the IBF immediately sanction a Lewis-Tua fight to occur prior to April 13," Barry said yesterday.

Lewis has just signed to fight HBO television's pin-up boy Michael Grant in New York on April 29. Barry admits that fight is unlikely to be stopped, regardless of the outcome in court.

"Lewis knows this is the perfect time to fight Grant, after he's been softened up and sat on his backside twice by Andrew Golota [the low-blow Pole, who won nine rounds and was knocked out in the 10th late last year].

"OK, we accept we'll have to wait again, but we're already six months over the mandatory period and by April it will be nine.

"We want three things - firstly a contract that says we fight the winner of the Grant/Lewis bout, and secondly a date on HBO in April-May against a fighter of our choice [Botha and Savarese being top of the list] and, thirdly, compensation."

Tua, meanwhile, is ensconced in a city penthouse apartment with 360-degree views of Auckland. He has grown even bigger across the shoulders and, still maturing physically as he goes through his mid-20s, looks about as easy to punch over as an Easter Island statue.