A NEW TUA OR JUST LIP SERVICE

     David Tua has been eating his veggies.  It's a lifestyle thing, a change in behavior and diet.  No more pepperoni pizzas or pecan pies or cake and ice cream for Tua. No more Big Macs or foot-longs or midnight Milky Ways.
     Gotta be a lean, mean fighting machine on Saturday night.  That's what it's all about.  Beating another guy silly without losing your wind, without sucking air.  A guy like Chris Byrd can make you sweat.
     On a conference call Tuesday, Tua sounded polite, practiced, protected and pretty boring when he discussed Saturday's title elimination fight with Byrd at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas.
     There was nothing said that you'd want to write down and save for future generations.  He  didn't accuse or berate or yell or poke fun at or surprise anyone.  He never raised his voice or got mad or said something foolish we could jump on him for.
     He just spoke quietly and politely in clichés. Lots of them.  You could teach a class in clichés after listening to Tua.  He told us he's ``done his homework,'' and he was going to let his ``actions speak louder than his words,'' and he's prepared to ``do whatever it takes'' to beat Byrd and "talk is cheap.''
     Well, I don't know. It sure was cheap during Tuesday's conference call.  The only thing worth repeating was the weight issue.  Tua told us he'd come in at 250 pounds, ``or around there,'' which didn't tell us a whole lot.  That was a general figure, like saying, ``Yeah, I've been past this place hundreds of times.''
     Not long after Tua uttered the breaking news, Dan Goossen jumped in.  You know Goossen. He rides shotgun over all of his fighters when it comes to talking to the media.  Can't let anything slip out that might be taken wrong. We're vultures.  A nice guy like Tua?  He's dog meat around us.
     ``Whoa,'' Goossen said in so many words, blaming the 250-pound statement on Tua's uncanny ability to tell a good joke.
     ``Although David is in great shape, he hasn't lost his sense of humor,'' said Goossen, who seldom appears to lose his.  ``He's not going to be 250 pounds. He's going to be under 250.''     Thanks. How much under?
  ``Anything under 250, we'll be happy with.'' 
    Sure. If Tua comes in over 245, Goossen busts a seam.
     How about a cliché, Dan?  We haven't heard one for a few seconds.
    ``David has taken the bull by the horns and understands what it takes to be heavyweight champion of the world.''   Dan was on a roll and hit us with another good one, this time talking
about Tua's training for the fight.  ``We've made sure no stone was left unturned,'' he said.
    Wow.
   You know Dan, you can only go to the well so many times. After that, when it rains, it pours.
-