Tua's Diet "Meticulously Controlled"
Paul Dalrymple
Boxing: Billy: eat what I say, David
New Zealand Herald
David Tua's diet is being meticulously controlled by a man he once worked
with, as PETER JESSUP reports from Las Vegas.
The sous chef at major hotels does not normally talk to kitchenhands other
than to tell them what to do, but it was at Auckland's Pan Pacific that
dishwasher David Tua met the man who now cooks his every measured meal.
Billy Statham was a fan from the start. He and others from the hotel went to
Tua's fights when he was little known in New Zealand, let alone Las Vegas.
This year the now cashed-up Tua rang his old buddy to ask him to move into
camp and keep him on the right food as he builds up to his world heavyweight
title fight against Lennox Lewis next month.
Fiji-born Statham had just started his own business, Food for Thought
Nutrition, catering to some of the All Blacks and Auckland Blues, but moved
to Las Vegas earlier this year and is now at the boxer's beck and call.
"It's come full circle, but we were always friends - he's my boss now,"
Statham said.
"However, we clicked when we first met and it's never been like a
boss-employee relationship."
The 40-year-old is responsible for keeping Tua on a lean and mean diet,
including all manner of supplements, cutting out the fat.
"I had to cull his grocery list pretty sharply," he said.
Telling Tua he cannot have ice cream is not a job for the weak. Statham's
secondary role here is as bouncer, looking after the Tua team when they go
into Vegas for promotions, shopping, or a night out.
"David knows what to put into his body. We've talked about it like we do
cars - you don't put peanut oil in a Ferrari. He's very focused on what he
needs to do to win the title."
Statham is first out of bed each day, at 6 am, to prepare breakfast for the
big boxer, middleweight Masoe Maselino, who is also training here, the Barry
brothers, Kevin and Bryan, who train and manage the boys, a TV3 documentary
crew here to record the build-up for history, and sometimes the Herald. He
is good, and so is the food.
Each meal starts with either of the boxers leading the group in saying
grace, God being a big part of their day.
Breakfast for the fighters is porridge, 20g of raisins, 20g of low-fat
yoghurt - the only dairy product they are allowed - 100g of melon and six
egg whites whipped into a supplement shake. That is between 350 and 400
calories all-up at each meal. Protein bars make up a total daily intake of
around 4000 calories.
The training takes out around 2500-3000. The rest sustains his muscle
building through the workout routine.
Tua was on mountains of fillet steak and pasta while building muscle. Now
that is done, he is on skinless chicken and rice, and salads.
He has another shake after morning training - usually a run or weights -
then lunch with another vitamin shake. Dinner is skinless chicken and rice
again.
Statham's recipe book has been tested as to how many ways poultry can be
served without fat loading or getting boring.
There is also a dinner-plate of pills for Tua to swill down with his shakes.
Included in the mineral intake are electrolyte to replace fluid, blood
glucose and muscle glycogen after training; calcium to replace what Tua
would normally get from dairy food; calcium methybutyrate monohydrate to aid
muscle building and fat burning; whey and glutamine containing all 22 amino
acids; antioxidant made from grape seed and green tea extracts; and
hydroxogen chromium picolate for energy and to decrease carbohydrate
craving.
Every now and then Tua calls out for a large plate of mashed potatoes,
sometimes late at night.
The diet and hard work combined are clearly working.
His chest is more defined now, his muscles harder. The size is there without
any sign of flab.
His daily test for skin-fold fat shows around 15 per cent body fat, which
will come down over the next few weeks, but not to a point where it will
diminish his awesome power.
"I'm here for him whatever he wants, whenever. Except ice cream - I've had
to confiscate that," Statham said.
And the chocolate biscuits that visitors bring from New Zealand?
"The rest of us dispose of those."
For drinks, Tua has grapefruit or fruit-punch cocktail juices, and coffee as
a diuretic.
He has never drunk alcohol, barring a kahlua and milk.
Tua must be looking forward to the weigh-in three days before the fight
because from then on he will be allowed to eat what he wants - and taro and
coconut milk dishes from his Samoan homeland will be high on that list.
Statham has never wondered if he has done the right thing in leaving his new
business in the hands of his helpers.
"When David rang and asked me to come I didn't have to think about it for
long.
"We're making history here. I wouldn't have missed it for anything," he
said.
The enormity of his job hit home when Tua went to watch another fight in Las
Vegas.
"The announcer was talking and when we entered the whole crowd stood and
chanted 'Tua, Tua.'
"Everyone wants a piece of him now. Everyone here is treating us with
respect. But Dave is still one of the boys. We keep his feet firmly on the
ground."
Statham's feet are off the ground. "Every day I wake up and go 'wow."'
Patrick Kehoe
Ya... you eat correctly for 2 and a half months and you are "fit" a bloomin'
god... this Tua PR is over the top sometimes... makes me laught sometimes
too... the truth is he's a fat, short guy, who apparently has pounded his
body down to somekind of decent shape for the fight... or is well on his way
to doing so, if the reports are to be believed... but he'll blow back up...
sure as day... he's a big hitter, quick fisted for most of the duration of a
bout and can take it, a guy with a limited but typically effective attack
technique... that's who and what Tua is... he's not going to become Mike
Tyson c.1988... he's not a dedicated trainer like Evander or Lewis and he
will begin to feel the effects of this up and down weight crashing soon...
for his sake, I hope it's not for another year or so... it's going to take
it out of him though... he's got to find a "fighting weight" or the
degenerative aspects shall be setting in very soon... he's actually
shortening his peek this way...
Patrick Kehoe
Paul Dalrymple <Paul...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
news:Z__H5.9741$7N.5...@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
The Sanity Cruzer
>Paul/lads/ladies,
>Ya... you eat correctly for 2 and a half months and you are "fit" a
bloomin'
>god... this Tua PR is over the top sometimes... makes me laught sometimes
>too... the truth is he's a fat, short guy, who apparently has pounded his
>body down to somekind of decent shape for the fight...
Fifteen percent body fat ain't exactly lean and mean for a man. Maybe for
Tua-man it is, but not for a professional athlete, this side of sumo
wrestling. That's not to say Tua's body style is not going to have a higher
percentage of body fat than most professional male athletes.
TSC
Pat
concerned more on his look and getting down in weight and suffered for
it thats what Ali said .Tua maybe heading down the same road .
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
The Chosen One
cutting fat will make you lose weight. Read "Dr. Atkins' New Diet
Revolution" where it tells you that if you cut your carbohydrate intake down
to 50 grams a day and eat all the meat, protein and fat that you want you
will lose weight. I lost 37 pounds and I feel great. I even have more
energy for running.
This whole "Cut the fat" brainwashing is just a scheme to turn us into a
nation of granola-eating vegetarians as far as I'm concerned.
"Paul Dalrymple" <Paul...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
news:Z__H5.9741$7N.5...@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
Robert C. May
feel great. I do heavy physical labor for a living (timber cutter) and have
way more energy and stamina than I did on the "low fat, high carb" diet. As an
added bonus my cholesterol numbers give me a relative risk for chronic heart
disease of less than half that of normal. Reminds me of the Jack London story
"A Piece of Steak."