MOUNT CHARLESTON, Nevada David Tua was annoyed on Monday by a question about whether he was carrying too much weight for Saturday's title fight against Lennox Lewis.
So, after gobbling an assortment of vitamins carefully laid out for him on a plate, sipping from a high-protein shake and spilling his pink grapefruit juice, the "Throwin' Samoan" as he once dubbed himself got up from his training camp breakfast table, yanked his shirt off over his head and, wearing just a pale orange sarong, proudly posed his thickly-muscled body.
"What do you think? You think I'm too big?" asked Tua, standing in the kitchen of the sprawling, bunker-like house he has rented for his nine weeks of training in the desert about 25 miles (40km) outside of Las Vegas.
Questions about Tua's weight dominate discussions of his chances against Lewis, whose impressively sculpted 250 pounds (113.4kg) are distributed over a 6-foot-5 (1.95 meters) frame.
Tua, who told Reuters he weighed about 244 pounds (110.6kg), is 5-foot-11 (1.8m). (Tua, perhaps simply for the fun of creating controversy, likes to claim he is only 5-9, 1.75m).
Tua's top weight in his eight-year professional career was the 253 pounds (114.7kg) he took into the ring last June against Obed Sullivan, whom he knocked out in the first round.
For his last fight, against lightly-regarded Robert Daniels in July, Tua these days going by the Moniker "Tuaman" weighed 243 pounds (110.2kg). He rendered Daniels unconscious in the third round.
Manhandling Lewis The theory generally bandied about is that Tua needs the weight to stand up to Lewis, not only in punching power but to take the manhandling from the Briton, who leans his weight on opponents in clinches to wear them down.
Tua's weight also seems to be an indication that he and his handlers think a fast start will allow him to get to the 37-1-1 Lewis early in the fight and not have to worry about lugging all that weight around for the scheduled 12 rounds.
Tua seems to confirm that approach when he says: "David Tua is not a boxer. It's tattooed on the minds of the judges and the fans that David Tua can't win on points. The only way I'm gonna win is I'm gonna knock him out. I'm not a boxer. No, sir." But Tua denies that the 35-year-old Lewis, champion of the World Boxing Association and the International Boxing Federation, had anything to do with his weight.
"I wasn't trying to gain weight. It's not like I'm going to be fighting taller, bigger guys so I have to gain weight," said Tua, who will turn 28 on November 21.
"No, no, no.
I just felt better as I was getting bigger. It's physics, man.
I've sparred with this weight with heavier gloves and headgear.
I prepared with the weight. I've sparred 10 and 12 rounds at this weight.
"I feel good. I feel really good with my flexibility, slipping punches, throwing punches," said Tua, punctuating his staccato delivery with rapidly clicking fingers. "It was all there. It wasn't like we stuffed 20-30 pounds on me to see how I cope with this weight." (Reuter)