No prayer: Tua completely outclassed by Lewis in title bout

Dean Juipe

Monday, Nov. 13, 2000 | 10:21 a.m.

It may not have been a parade but it was more than a trickle.

Dozens, maybe hundreds, of boxing fans headed up the aisles at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, their destination only slightly unclear.

A sudden urge for a beer or a soda? A quick trip to the bathroom?

No, this was something else.

This was desertion.

Having lost interest in the progressively one-sided fight before them, by the end of the 10th and 11th rounds many of the 12,085 spectators at Saturday night's Lennox Lewis vs. David Tua fight performed a vanishing act seldom seen at an event of this magnitude.

They headed for the exits, turning their backs not only on Tua but on the sport's age-old notion that a big hitter like the Samoan carries a "puncher's chance" until the final bell.

They had seen enough. The aisles, not the isles, told the tale: Neither hocus-pocus nor wishful thinking was going to bring Tua the heavyweight championship he had hyperbolically proclaimed was willed to be his.

He was, in fact, convincingly defeated.

"I was a bit disappointed in Tua," said Lewis' promoter, Panos Eliades, echoing the sentiments of virtually everyone in attendance at the fight. "He should have taken more chances. How are you going to win if you don't throw any punches?"

Averaging a mere 35 punches thrown per round and connecting on an even skimpier average of nine per round, Tua failed in a quest he earlier had boasted was preordained. When his infrequent and winging left hooks repeatedly failed to land, he did little more than accept the leather Lewis kept shoving into his face.

The World Boxing Council and International Boxing Federation heavyweight titles remain with Lewis, an Englishman who is now 38-1-1 and without a significant challenger should Mike Tyson pass on the opportunity to fight him.

Lewis erased Tua from the equation with superb technique and a steady jab, easily winning a fight that many believed would go the other way.

Scored by three Las Vegans, Lewis won by 10 points on Dave Moretti's scorecoard, by eight points on Chuck Giampa's card and by six points on Jerry Roth's card. The Sun gave Tua three of the first four rounds but no others en route to a final tally of 117-111 for the defending champion.

"I realized as the fight wore on he definitely slowed down," Lewis said later. "He was showing a little tiredness. It seemed like he was dependant on a left hook and I didn't want to get hit by it."

As a result, Lewis moved accordingly, keeping Tua at bay with repetitive mitts to the face. He threw 674 punches, 300 of which found their mark.

"I could have thrown more punches," Lewis offered. "But the ones I threw were sufficient. I threw enough to do some damage."

Tua's reddened mug reflected the steady beating he absorbed. On a night in which he said he would summon mystical, almost voodoo-like powers, he, instead, was treated as just another limited, methodical pretender.

"He's a very, very good champion," Tua acknowledged. "I did the best I could but things didn't work out for me."

With his promoter, Dan Goossen, espousing the belief that an old rib injury had contributed to Tua's ineffectiveness, the "spin" was that this wasn't the real David Tua.

"It wasn't his typical performance," Goossen said. "Six or eight weeks ago David hurt his ribs in training camp and after he got hit there in the second round it turned the fight around. The worst thing we can do is make excuses -- and Lennox fought a scintillating fight -- but we didn't see the best of David Tua.

"We're very disappointed on our end."

No one really saw any evidence of a second-round body shot hurting Tua, including Lewis himself. "Beats me," he replied, when asked about the injury claim.

Ironically, or suspiciously for nonbelievers, Tua's best round was the third and it was the only round he won on each of the judges' cards. Thereafter he took what Lewis handed him and did little to counter or force the action.

"After the second round when I was hurt, it restricted my movement," Tua said. "But that's the way it goes. No excuses whatsoever."

Boos were smattered throughout the latter portion of the fight, although most in the orderly crowd sat silently and waited for a Tua-led eruption that simply never arrived. It was as if Tua had resigned himself to losing to a man who held advantages of seven inches in height and 15 inches in reach.

Asked if he became overly cautious, Tua said "Yes, I really was."

Lewis, who issued the workmanlike pummeling, was unmarked in what was his 14th world title fight.

"I'm very satisfied with Lennox's fight tonight," said his trainer, Emanuel Steward. "He prevented Tua from getting into any type of rhythm."

When the topic of Tua's alleged injury arose again, Steward dismissed it with a recollection of his own.

"Tommy Hearns broke his right hand and continued fighting Marvin Hagler," Steward said, referring to a legendary April 15, 1985 fight in Las Vegas in which Hearns fractured two bones in his hand in the opening round yet spiritedly continued until being knocked down and having the fight stopped in the third round.

"Leave the injury alone and deal with the fight at hand," Steward implored the Tua camp.

Tua, who picked up a little betting support in the hours before the fight and went off as a plus 250 underdog, falls to 37-2 with the loss and slides back into the heavyweight mix.

Lewis, who closed as a minus 300 favorite, advances to what could be a lucrative fight with the unpredictable Tyson if it can be arranged. But his promoter, Eliades, isn't counting on Tyson and suggested at least two other immediate alternatives.

"Tyson is the ideal fight should he take it," Eliades said. "But we also might fight Kirk Johnson in Canada or (Wladimar) Klitschko in Europe."

Coming through the bout unscathed makes Lewis viable for a fight anytime in the next few months.

"I know it wasn't a good fight for the spectators but Lennox fought a sensible fight," Eliades said. "The only drawback of the whole evening is that because of the way Tua fought, Lennox didn't gain many fans."