Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Boxing: The Sweet Science -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LPS5 who wrote (1169)	11/8/2000 8:16:42 PM
From: LPS5	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10489

Food for thought with Tua, Lewis By Ron Borges, Globe Staff, 11/8/2000 LAS VEGAS - There's no accounting for taste. Just ask heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis. It is difficult to know what it is about Lewis that inspires the tastebuds of his opponents, but although widely perceived to be the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, he apparently remains a tasty treat on the mental menus of challengers like Mike Tyson and David Tua. A few months back, while speaking from the safety of a boxing ring thousands of miles from Lewis, Tyson remarked that he would like to eat Lewis's children as well as the champion's heart, if he could just get at him. The former, Lewis quickly pointed out, would be somewhat difficult since he has no children, but the latter is always a possibility for Tyson, who has already sampled a portion of Evander Holyfield's ear in an earlier fight turned feast. Of course Tyson would first have to summon up the courage to get into the ring with Lewis, and he has shown no proclivity toward that, recently talking more about retirement than roasting Lewis. But now even the mild-mannered Tua, the International Boxing Federation's No. 1 challenger and Lewis's opponent Saturday night on pay-per-view, has expressed an interest in dining on the champ rather than with him. Speaking to longtime British tabloid fight writer and occasional Showtime commentator Colin Hart of the Sun a while back, Tua reportedly said, ''My ancestors were cannibals. I can already taste Lennox.'' Tua, who hails from the miniscule island of Faleatiu in Western Samoa, claims to be a direct descendant of Talimatasi, a legendary Samoan warrior king. His ancestors, so the story goes, were Polynesian fighters who dined upon a visiting missionary or two in their hey day before finally succumbing to their preachings and becoming deeply religious. Tua is, in fact, of such stock. Like many Samoans, he is built like a tank at 5 feet 10 inches and well over 250 pounds. Like many Samoans, he is deeply religious. But on fight night, he says, he is a Samoan of a less spiritual bent, one who recalls the days of Talimatasi, days when a man could do some fine dining without having to travel to the supermarket. ''When I warm up in the dressing room I put on my Samoan outfit and my coral beads and I can feel my ancestors with me,'' Tua insists. ''I call on the spirits of the warriors of my past to be with me. I call on their strength. Talimatasi is part of the heritage of my family. I have been told by my elders never to forget to live up to that name.'' Hopefully, Tua will refrain from living up to his dining habits when he steps in against Lewis at Mandalay Bay, although it has been pointed out by Tyson that Tua looks ''hungry'' to him. One has to hope Tyson doesn't mean that literally. One assumes, naturally, that this talk of lunching on Lewis is all hype designed to drive up the pay-per-view sales of their confrontation at a time when pay-per-view seems in some trouble because of recent fiascos involving Tyson and others. In fact, this is the first legitimate confrontation between a heavyweight champion and his challenger in quite some time, and clearly a fight for the undisputed title despite Holyfield's partial ownership of the tainted World Boxing Association version he originally lost to Lewis last year. Certainly the Lewis-Michael Grant confrontation last April was anything but legitimate. Grant made no such comments concerning his dining habits and its impact on Lewis, and it quickly became apparent why when he came out for the first round and began dining on filet of leather, followed by a taste of canvas. It is expected Tua will offer a sterner test for Lewis without resorting to the culinary actions of his ancestors because he possesses one of the most powerful left hands in the business and a chin that reportedly is firm enough to be used as a foundation for buildings going up on the San Andreas Fault in San Francisco. Neither of those may make much of a difference against an opponent nearly 10 inches taller and with a sizable reach advantage, however. In fact, one assumes Lewis's long and occasionally stiff jab will keep Tua far enough away from him that to do any dining at ringside, he'll have to be ordering from room service. But if he does get inside, though, the expectation is it will become interesting because then we will see if Lennox Lewis has an appetite for fighting. If he does, David Tua may find the heavyweight champion hard to swallow. This story ran on page E01 of the Boston Globe on 11/8/2000.