Boxing: Tua sharpens up for bout with southpaw

By PETER JESSUP

David Tua has dropped weight and completed more than 1200 rounds in sparring and other ring work as he builds to meet southpaw Chris Byrd next weekend.

He is 235lb (106.6kg), the lightest he has been since he met Hasim Rahman in 1998. That's 10lb lighter than he was when he fought Lennox Lewis and nearly 20lb down on the weight he took into the ring against Obed Sullivan last year.

Manager Kevin Barry said his fighter had finally turned a corner. There was no comparison between the man who met Lewis for the world title and the 2001 Tua.

"We have at last got everything right, the right mix of professionals doing the job for him, and David is focused, determined and disciplined - he's done everything asked of him," Barry said.

The Byrd fight offers a direct line to the heavyweight title.

The winner at the Cox Pavilion in the Las Vegas Thomas and Mack Convention Centre has a court-guaranteed date with the IBF title-holder, currently Rahman.

The court order requires any new holder to meet the obligation. With Lewis said to have just signed to meet Rahman in a re-match, a re-match with Tua comes into the cards that might fall.

"There'll be no excuses [in the event of a loss to Byrd]," Barry said. "He has no problems mentally."

Byrd's professional record is 33-2 with 29KOs. He lost last October on points to Ukrainian Wladimir Klitschko (who also beat him in the Olympic final) and in March 1999 to Ike Ibeabuchi in a fifth-round KO. Ibeabuchi has also beaten Tua, in a points decision in 1997.

The 31-year-old Byrd came to prominence in amateur boxing, has three US titles, the 1990 Goodwill Games gold medal from Seattle at light-heavyweight and the silver medal from the 1992 Barcelona Olympics at the same weight, when the gold went to Cuba's Ariel Hernandez Ascuy.

A poll of United States boxing writers has 37 going for Tua (28 by KO) and 11 for Byrd (none by KO).