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

To: Bwe who wrote (2122)	3/16/2001 10:24:26 PM
From: LPS5	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 10489

Tua vows to put beating by Lewis in distant past by Dan Rafael, USA TODAY LAS VEGAS — The rebuilding of heavyweight contender David Tua is underway. When we last saw the Samoan slugger, he wasn't doing much slugging. In fact, he wasn't doing much of anything. In his first title shot last November, he spent 12 plodding rounds following Lennox Lewis around the ring, eating left jabs and right hands from the champion en route to a lopsided loss by decision. Now, Tua is ready to fight his way back into contention. The road starts next Friday (Showtime, 11 p.m. ET/PT) at Texas Station in Las Vegas, where Tua (No. 5 USA TODAY, 37-2, 32 KOs) meets Danell Nicholson (39-3, 30 KOs) in an eliminator. The winner becomes the IBF's No. 1 contender. "I make no excuses for what happened against Lewis," says Tua, who has since fired trainer Ronnie Shields and replaced him with Joe Goossen. "No disrespect to Ronnie, but we had a simple plan, and that was to go out and knock him out. Obviously, it wasn't good enough. I thought I did what I needed to do to win the fight, but there was no plan B. "All I can say is that I was very disappointed. I am devastated, as most of the fans were." Heavyweight Clifford "The Black Rhino" Etienne (19-0, 13 KOs) makes his Showtime debut vs. Fres Oquendo (19-0, 10 KOs) in the 10-round co-feature. Tua, working to trim down from the 245 he weighed for Lewis, knows it will take more than beating Nicholson for the public to demand to see him in another title fight after his performance against Lewis. "We're not looking to fight for the heavyweight title right now," promoter Dan Goossen says. "We want to prove to everyone that Tua is going to go out there and let his actions speak louder than his words. The only way you are going to do that is by talking less about it and fighting more guys like Nicholson." Goossen says if Tua wins, they won't rest on the No. 1 ranking like they did while waiting for Lewis. "We'll go after two more top-10 guys, and we'll make the fights even if we have to overpay to get them in the ring with Tua," Goossen says. "We will make sure that David will be ready when he gets his next shot. He'll prove himself against top-10 guys and show the fans he deserves another shot." * Ali apologizes: Muhammad Ali has apologized for some of the things he said about Joe Frazier before their March 8, 1971, fight, the first of their classic trilogy. Frazier, bitter for years about Ali's comments, has said recently that he wanted to put that behind him. "In a way, Joe's right," Ali said in an interview with The New York Times. "I said a lot of things in the heat of the moment that I shouldn't have said. Called him names I shouldn't have called him. I apologize for that. I'm sorry. It was all meant to promote the fight." Before the fight, Ali called Frazier an "Uncle Tom" and said he was "too ugly to be the champ." Frazier said he accepted Ali's apology. Their daughters, Laila Ali and Jacqueline Frazier-Lyde, are scheduled to fight each other June 8. * Quick hits: Former four-division champ Pernell Whitaker (40-3-1) returns April 27 (ESPN2) vs. Carlos Bojorquez (14-4-2) at Lake Tahoe. It will be Whitaker's first bout since a February 1999 loss to Felix Trinidad. Mike Tyson manager Shelly Finkel said that MCI Center in Washington, D.C., is the likely site for Tyson's May 19 fight vs. David Izon. If the building is unavailable because of the NHL Capitals' playoff schedule, it would be at USAir Arena in Landover, Md.