Boxing: Tua's impossible dream now a reality

By PETER JESSUP

When David Tua sauntered through the Customs arrival hall at Auckland Airport yesterday, things were as they always are when he comes home from work - family and friends to greet him, Tua just another traveller.

All that set him apart were the two 2m bouncers, the 2m across the shoulders and a new stetson hat.

Next time, though, if all goes according to the Tua plan, the airport should be packed as he brings home the IBF and WBC world heavyweight boxing title belts taken from Lennox Lewis.

There have been plenty of "ifs" for the boy from Mangere, but they are decreasing in size and number.

Tua is now confirmed as the No 1 contender for both boxing organisations whose belts Lewis holds, with the date for their showdown set in concrete.

There are plenty of problems to be worked through, including venue, fight purse and broadcast rights. But there was no better sign that Lewis was finally taking Tua seriously than his manager, Panos Eliades, ringing the Tua camp in the past two days to offer a better payday.

Tua's manager, Kevin Barry, said they had knocked it back.

"There were millions involved, but not enough millions," Barry said.

Both Lewis' and Tua's camps want to stage the title fight on the agreed date of November 12. They and others want to go to a "purse bid" at which the fighters agree to the contest being staged by the bidder with the biggest cheques. That is likely to be in New York, home of the IBF headquarters, in early August.

The outcome will settle the venue, but the United States is almost a certainty and Las Vegas definite should Tua's backers, America Presents, win the bidding.

Tua, Barry and America Presents are certain now of one thing - Lewis cannot sidestep the Aucklander. He cannot choose to fight anyone else, and will relinquish both world titles if he does not step into the ring with the little big guy as scheduled in the second week of November.

"This was an impossible dream, now it's reality," Tua said yesterday. "It's my destiny."

He said he had woken every day for the past three years thinking of fighting Lennox Lewis for the title.

He respects the Briton with a 13cm height and 14cm reach advantage, but he certainly does not fear him.

"If I feared any man I wouldn't be in this business. It's a tough way to make a living. But fear? No. I'm looking forward to it."

In Auckland for a few days to visit family members, Tua will have a brief break in Samoa followed by a month's conditioning work back in Auckland before he goes into camp in Las Vegas six weeks out from his meeting with Lewis.

Tua was happy with the three-round knockout of Robert Daniels, his last ring work ahead of the title shot.

"I've been working hard on my right and putting combinations together. It was good to get him with an uppercut. I had to show David Tua isn't just a one-punch guy," he said.

The result and the means by which it was accomplished had led to plenty of plaudits in the United States and Tua admitted he was enjoying being given some credit after years of working for it, saying: "It's nice to be recognised as the best puncher in the division. It makes me feel very happy inside."

He translated a call he made to Lewis in Samoan immediately after the victory over Daniels. "Basically I told him it is the Tua-man's time. He's been a great champion but it's time for a new one."

The 27-year-old Tua arrived with his sticking-up, Don King-model hairdo squashed under a stetson and joked that as the shortest fighter in the division he needed every height advantage he could get and that he might let the hair keep on growing vertically.

He is clearly stepping neatly into the America-expects role, and enjoying it.

"The Terminator" was last century's name, Tua said, and "The Throwin' Samoan," with which the American media has tagged him, is growing on him.

There was some game-play in the name-play, with talk that he would "bring the title back to America" all adding to the occasion - "and I'm happy to do whatever helps to bring the crowd to the fight."

But if he wins, it will be Auckland he comes home to.

"I appreciate the opportunity America has given me," Tua said in answer to queries about where his future nationality might lie.

He was 100 per cent Samoan, he said, a proud New Zealander and an adopted son of the United States. But when he wins, there will only be one anthem played - "the New Zealand one."