Boxing: Tua waits for Jones to quit belt

By PETER JESSUP

The purse bid for the David Tua-Hasim Rahman III bout to decide the WBA world title has been postponed until September 15.

The WBA is waiting for its heavyweight champ Roy Jones jun to renounce the belt. He is expected to do that any day and agree to terms to fight Antonio Tarver at light-heavyweight.

September 1 was the deadline for him to defend the belt he won from John Ruiz. The 180-day mandatory period is now expired, but the WBA is wary of giving Jones reason to sue it if it strips him, so would prefer he calls the Tarver fight first.

Jones is in Kenya, where he and his promoter Akbar Mohammed have talked of a fight there to help the campaign against the HIV/Aids problem the country has, with two million of a population of 32 million infected.

The Jones-Tarver fight will apparently be at the Mandalay Bay casino in Las Vegas on November 8.

The WBA said yesterday that terms and conditions for the Tua-Rahman purse bid were unchanged, reiterating that Tua remained its No 1-ranked fighter.