Tuaman hits the Big Apple
He’s 33, but 33 going on 18, he likes to say.
He looks fit and says courtroom battles that have sapped his energy for three years, though still ongoing, are in his rear-view mirror.
David Tua, the bomb-throwin’ Samoan, is ready for another run in the heavyweight division, he told TSS at the Palm restaurant in Midtown Manhattan on Tuesday.
“I’ve had a good rest,” Tuaman said in his low decibel, easygoing manner. “Great things have come from my break. I’ve absorbed no beatings. I’m in my prime.”
Tua (44-3-1) got married a year ago, and has enjoyed time with his two boys. But boxing for him is 70% mental, and a court battle with former managers, who he says misappropriated monies intended for him, have stolen valuable years from his career.
He’ll step in the ring again on Cedric Kushner’s July 26 show at the Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC, his first fight in 2006. He fought twice in 2005, his first action since drawing with Hasim Rahman in March 2003.
Tua, who was easily bested by Lennox Lewis in a year 2000 run at Lewis’ crowns, says that he’s been working on the jab with trainer Roger Bloodworth, and that his new attention to the basics will pay off. “They say an old dog can’t learn new tricks but I say that’s wrong,” Tua says.
“I’m having fun,” he told TSS. “I’m passionate now.”
He’s at about 250 now, but says he’d like to hit the 235 mark when he steps up the level of competition. “It’s not going to happen overnight,” he concedes.
(Email news tips to Michael Woods at Fightwrite@gmail.com)
As mentioned in an earlier piece of mine, Frans “the white Buffalo” Botha is keen to get it on with Tua as well. Perhaps after the July 26 we’ll get some news if the two respective boxer’s promoters can come to terms.
Anybody who steps in the ring with David Tua better be ready to run. If Frans Botha jumps in he can fight as dirty as hwe wants Because it is hard to low blow a 5′10” Heavywieght and head but a cinder block. Good night Botha!!!