LAS VEGAS -- A monkey in a diaper attended David Tua's final workout Thursday for his challenge to heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis. The lion and tiger remained caged.

Tua has prepared for Saturday night's fight at the Prince Ranch, about a 20-minute drive out in the desert from the Las Vegas strip.

	David Tua plans to enter the ring wearing a Samoan kilt to the accompaniment of a Samoan drummer Saturday.

The property also is used by an animal trainer, and penned up about 100 yards from where Tua trained were donkeys, Shetland ponies, a camel, Aslan the lion, Jagger the tiger and a chimpanzee.

Some wise guy cracked that Tua must be preparing for gorilla warfare.

Thursday's workout was watched by about 150 tourists from New Zealand, where Tua, who will turn 28 Nov. 21, has lived since his family moved from Western Samoa when he was 11.

They serenaded the fighter with, "One David Tua, there's only one David Tua." He laughed. He is quick to laugh ... up to a point.

"This is a very tough fight," said Emanuel Steward, trainer of Lewis, the IBF-WBC champion from Britain.

Tua has a 37-1 record, with 32 knockouts, and he has never been knocked down or been cut as an amateur or pro. He is ranked No. 1 by both the IBF and WBC. The pay-per-view fight at Mandalay Bay is an IBF mandatory defense for Lewis.

When a reporter began a question, "If you win ..." Tua interrupted and said, "Not 'if,' 'when.' If you're going to say 'if,' then I'm not going to talk to you."

Then he smiled and kept talking.

"It's already tattooed in David Tua's mind that this is his destiny," he said.

To realize his destiny, Tua, who stands about 5-foot-10, will have to get inside against the 6-5 champion.

"I've dealt with height and reach differences, that's nothing new," said Tua, who not only is giving away 5 inches in height, but 15 inches in reach. The height difference could be the more important.

"I'm short, but I'm big," Tua said.

Indeed he is, with a 38-inch waist and 49-inch chest, 51 inches when the chest is expanded. The three measurements for Lewis are 34, 44 and 46.

Tua weighed in officially Thursday at 245 pounds, only four pounds less than Lewis.

Whatever happens, Tua is making his mark on this capital of glitz, glamor and gambling.

He wears his hair in what he calls a Samoan warrior's hairdo. His head is shaved on the side and back and the hair stands straight up to a height of five inches.

Tua, who has a tattoo of Samoan figures on his right calf and one saying "Samoan 100 percent" on his left calf, will wear sacred beads into the ring.

Lewis is the favorite, but he has no chance in outshining the challenger on his ring entrance.

Besides the beads, Tua will enter the ring wearing a lavalava (a Samoan kilt) to the accompaniment of a Samoan drummer. A Samoan warrior will welcome him into the ring by blowing on a conch shell.

"It's going to be a beautiful night and a great night for David Tua," he said.

The TVKO telecast will begin at 9 p.m. ET, with the main event set to start about 11:30 p.m. ET. It will be preceded by three 10-round bouts.