SUMMER GAMES SPOTLIGHT : BARCELONA ’92 OLYMPICS : IT’S A LONG WAY FROM NEW ZEALAND

A building story is the New Zealand heavyweight, David Tua.

Born in Western Samoa, but a resident of New Zealand for most of his life, Tua, 18, is reminiscent of Mike Tyson in his demeanor and body language entering the ring. Unlike Tyson, he’s an upright boxer but still has knockout power. He has stopped two opponents here, one by a clean knockout.

Still, Finkel says: “He’s an interesting kid, but to do something with him, you’d have to relocate him to the States. It would be a big investment in time and money, and without really knowing much about him, I think I’d be reluctant.”

This a daily roundup of Olympic-related items from reporters in Barcelona from the Los Angeles Times, Newsday and Baltimore Sun, all Times-Mirror newspapers.