Boxing: Tua's hometown team ready to rumble in style

By ALAN PERROTT

South Auckland is a long way from the glitz of Las Vegas, but it is a stronghold of support for its man of the moment, David Tua.

The world title contender has maintained strong links with the community during his rise in boxing fortunes.

Now they are massing behind his world heavyweight title bid.

Tua's South Auckland-based fan club Sigano began a week of prayer last Friday and plans further events to get people into world title bout mood.

Club spokesman Tanupo Aukuso says the Rosa Pasifika, a converted supermarket in the Otara Shopping Centre, will host a prematch event on Saturday night and then show the fight on a big screen on Sunday.

The Saturday event will include a host of sporting celebrities, a performance of the war dance created specially for the fight, and replays of Tua's many victories.

With the speed Tua knocks his opponents over, the replays should take barely five minutes, Mr Aukuso said.

The night will also honour former New Zealand boxing champions such as Alex Sua and Monty Betham.

The many Pacific Island churches around South Auckland are holding their own prayer meetings to support Tua.

At the end of each service everyone is invited to wear the sigano necklace which Tua wears into the ring before each fight.

Tua's old schools have also joined in on the act.

He was 10 when he arrived in Auckland and enrolled at Mangere's Sir Douglas Bader Intermediate.

Principal Bill Tooley says the school's Samoan bilingual unit is its focus of pro-Tua sentiment.

"Those students are making a lot of noise around the school at the moment. David will be the winner on Sunday and that's it as far as they are concerned."

The boxer is being used in class as an example of the qualities needed to become successful.

Otahuhu Intermediate is putting together an enormous fax to be sent to the Mandalay Bay Casino as Tua goes through his final preparation.

Principal Dick Kitto remembers the quiet, younger Tua who attended the school and thanks the grown-up version who continues to drop by to say hello.

"This is a big thing for us. We use him quite unashamedly as a role model.

"Tua is a man who uses aggression in his professional life, but not in the way he lives, and he is a man who has shown sheer determination to get where he has."

Otahuhu College fifth-former Jonathon Ngan Woo has put together a video of best wishes from pupils and Tua's former teachers which has been sent to the Tua camp.

Principal Bill Gavin says the school is excited to see a former student doing so well on the world stage.

"We've got a lot of time for him, he still drops in on occasion, so we're backing him all the way."

Herald Online feature: Tua v Lewis

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.

* Be sure to get your full-colour poster of the two fighters in the print edition of the Herald on Friday November 10.