Goliath Lewis favourite against David Tua

Neither man wants to end up horizontal in the ring, but it’s likely to end that way. Lewis, who will be paid $ 8 million, is 37-1 with one drawn and 29 knock-outs.

Tua, who gets $ 3.5 million, is 37-1 with 32 knock-outs.

“He was a good champion. But I have waited for this opportunity and I’m going to knock him out,” Tua said. “He has never experienced what I’m going to do to him.”

Emanuel Steward, Lewis’ trainer, considers Tua a threat cause he has shown knock-out power in late rounds and never been knocked down, hurt or cut.“He’s more dangerous than Mike Tyson,” Steward said. “This guy can take you out with a single blow. Lennox could be one punch away from losing his title.

“Tua can knock you out early or late. Tua is dangerous all the way. There’s no safe point. If Lennox delivers the kind of punch that would ordinarily take an opponent out, it might not be good enough to get rid of David Tua.”Appreciating the mention with rival-biting rapist Tyson, the ex-champ likely to fight the Lewis-Tua winner, Tua joked, “It’s good to be compared to Tyson. But I don’t bite.”

Steward, who dismissed Tua as too small to be a heavyweight threat when he first met him, praised the New Zealand-bred fighter as impressive for making himself the top challenger. But he said Lewis is too big and experienced.“He can come with a right and if you duck that there is an uppercut coming,” Steward said. “Lennox is too big, too good and too experienced in superfights.”

Tua is the nephew of Alofa Anola, known as Afa the wild Samoan to fans of the over-the-top World Wrestling Federation shows. Tua worked with his uncle about how to combat Lewis holding if Tua gets inside his superior reach.“I can’t talk about it but I have had some very wise preparation,” Tua said. “Let’s just say that I will have a surprise for Lennox if he tries something.”

Look for Tua to put his head on Lewis’ chest, and his high-standing hair into Lewis’ face, to try and break clinches with the champion.“I don’t think it’s going to be a tough fight for me,” Lewis said. “He says he’s going to fight inside. He says a lot of things people said before. It’s a different thing when he’s in the ring.

“The only person out there who can beat me is Lennox Lewis and I’m not going to let that happen.”

Tua has gone beyond three rounds only once in eight fights over the past two and half years. Lewis has used superior reach to set up jabs and counter punches when unable to land the knock-out blow.

But Tua’s camp has cautioned referee Joe Cortez about watching for excessive holding by Lewis and the champion holding the back of a foe’s head with one hand to set up punches.

“We will rely on Joe Cortez,” Tua trainer Ronnie Shields said. “David is not going to be some vigilante. If Lennox tries to hold, we have things we can do. We have picked a few things up. If Lennox holds him, David knows what to do.”

Despite the height difference, Tua weighed in only four pounds lighter than Lewis at Thursday’s ceremony. At 245 pounds, Tua was eight pounds less than when he beat Obed Sullivan last June, the only time he has weighed in heavier.

Lewis was 249 pounds, his third-heaviest showing — one pound lighter than when he faced South Africa’s Francis Botha last July in his most recent bout and two pounds less than his personal high for a 1997 bout with Oliver McCall.