26.12.06 – By Paul McCreath: Recently, I had the good fortune to sit down and watch a whole series of fights in their entirety featuring heavyweight boxing contender David Tua. These bouts ranged from his very early career up to his most recent fight with Maurice Wheeler in November 2006. As it so happened, the Wheeler bout was immediately followed by one from Tua’s early days as a hot prospect.
For me, I could hardly believe the difference, for you would never know it was the same man, it was so shocking. Tua for his 6th pro bout, weighed in at a slim, well defined 216 pounds. At the time, he was a lean, mean punching machine and unlike most other sluggers, he had a second huge advantage – a rock solid chin.
For the most part, Tua has always had a great ability to absorb punches with little or no effect, at least while fighting as a professional. In the amateurs, he was stopped by the great Cuban heavyweight Felix Savon in the 1st round, after walking into a monstrous right hand.
After turning professional, for about 4 years, between 1996 and 2000, Tua remained perhaps the top prospect in the heavyweight division. Who can forget “the night of the young heavyweights,” when he blasted out future champion John Ruiz in 19 seconds, stopping him with two huge left hooks, one in which landed while Ruiz was on his way down to the canvas. On the same card, Darroll Wilson stopped another top prospect, Shannon Briggs. Six months later, the winners would meet with Tua, once again, scoring a resounding first round KO.
Tua followed these successes with KO’s over David Izon and another future champ, Oleg Maskaev. At this stage in Tua’s career, he had 27 consecutive wins, with 23 by knockout. His next bout would be his first defeat, but this unforgettable battle with Ike Ibeabuchi really had no loser, in that both fought very well. Six fights later, in December of 1998, came his first battle with Hasim Rahman, a 10th round KO win for Tua and another future champ on his list of victims. Tua was still a trim 224, at this time.
A few tune-ups later and David finally got his title shot with Lennox Lewis. Unfortunately, Tua’s weight had shot up by 20 pounds to 245 lbs, since the Rahman bout and he was soundly out pointed by Lewis. The beginning of the decline had begun, although Tua was only 28 years old at the time. There was a brief return to proper conditioning the next summer when he faced Chris Byrd, a fight in which Tua came in at 233 pounds, in an IBF eliminator. However, Byrd was too slick and won easily. One could argue that David Tua would never have beaten either Lewis or Byrd if he tried again, but in the next few years there were certainly other belt holders who would have had a tough time with him. The chance never came.
After the disappointment against Byrd, Tua scored four more KO’s, among them a knockout over top contender Fres Oquendo and former champ Michael Moorer. This made four different men who at one time or another held world title belts that had fallen to his fists. At long last, came a rematch with Rahman, in another IBF eliminator. In what should have been a great opportunity for both men, they both showed up in terrible shape, Tua at 245 lbs and Rahman, even worse at 259 lbs. The decision was a draw and should have eliminated both of them. As it was, Rahman shunned the IBF and won the WBC title instead, while Tua dropped out of sight for two whole years while settling a dispute with his management team. I have never understood why he could not have continued his career and simply put his purses in escrow until the matter was settled. Rather, he threw away two years in the prime of his career.
Finally, in March of 2005, Tua mounted a comeback but in the 21 months since that time, he has fought in only four tune-up type bouts and has weighed between 245-250 lbs for all of them. In my estimation, twenty pounds too much for the 5’9” Tua to carry. Against Wheeler, in Tua’s last effort, he looked terrible, allowing the very ordinary Wheeler to outbox him at times before finally running out of gas and succumbing to two body shots thrown by Tua in the 7th. No doubt, Tua can still punch but he is now so slow that he seldom lands any more and cannot sustain a rally. He’s still relatively young at 34 years old, and could still be a factor in the division, yet only if he gets serious and takes off at least 20 pounds. It would be great if he could because we could sure use an exciting puncher like he used to be, but I fear he has left his best chances behind him.