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LAS VEGAS – Boxer David Tua tried to save a man who had been attacked by a tiger, then comforted the man as he bled to death at the ranch where Tua trains. "He was able to stay calm and composed and help as much as he could," Kevin Barry, Tua's manager, said Tuesday. Eric Bloom, 25, was killed Sunday while he and the tiger's owner, Josh Weinstein, were grooming the 7-year-old Bengal tiger for an advertising photo shoot. The attack happened in the desert northwest of Las Vegas at Safari Wildlife, a company that provides exotic animals for film and show work. The company is located at the same ranch as Tua's training facility, about 15 miles from downtown Las Vegas. Police said the tiger named Jagger put its paw on Bloom's shoulder, pushed him to the ground and then bit him in the neck at about 6:15 p.m. Barry said Tua heard the screams from his room at the ranch and ran to the tiger's cage. "The tiger had Eric's head in his mouth," Barry said. "Josh Weinstein was ferociously hitting the tiger with a spade. David ran off to grab some towels and ring the ambulance." When Tua returned, Weinstein had pulled the tiger's mouth open and gotten Bloom out of the cage. "David started applying pressure on the bite marks," Barry said. "Of course, the blood was just pouring out of his neck." Barry said Tua worked with Weinstein "to resuscitate and try and stop the bleeding." "David said to me his hands and arms were just absolutely covered in blood." Bloom died from blood loss. Tua has posed with the tiger on several occasions for promotional pictures, including a photo shoot before last year's world heavyweight title fight against Lennox Lewis. Tua lost that fight. "For it to do something like this, we consider ourselves a little bit lucky, and we're also very sad," Barry said. Tua, a native of Samoa who lives in New Zealand, knocked out Danell Nicholson in the sixth round Friday night in a boxing match at Texas Station hotel-casino. Clark County Animal Control has quarantined the tiger while the investigation continues. |