Tuaman returns to action Friday night at Roseland Ballroom

David Tua fights the 50th fight of his career in Gotham Boxing’s main event on Friday night, November 3, at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City against Abraham “The African Assassin� Okine.

Tua (45-3-1, 39 KOs) is trying to get back into the heavyweight mix and was slated to fight Ross Puritty (30-19-3, 27 KOs), but Puritty suffered a cut to his forehead during training and had to withdraw from the bout. Hence a late substitute was needed to fight the heavy-handed Samoan from Aukland, New Zealand.

Enter Abraham Okine (14-2, 8 KOs). A native of Accra, Ghana, which has produced such stellar talents as former champions Azumah Nelson and Ike Quartey, Okine now fights out of Pittsburgh. Standing at 6-foot-2, The African Assassin had reeled off 14 straight wins without a defeat before two recent setbacks this year, one to Shannon Briggs, who fights Saturday for the WBO heavyweight title against the champ Sergei Liakhovich, and the other against Timo Hoffmann.

Tua was inactive for two years and has won three straight since returning to active duty. And while he has been written off by those who never like his plodding style in the first place, he does have wins against current WBC champion Oleg Maskaev, as well as former champs Michael Moorer, Hasim Rahman and John Ruiz.

At today’s press conference at the Palm Restaurant in midtown Manhattan, Tuaman said it was a “great, great honor to return to New York and fight here,� and thanked his promoter Cedric Kushner for “believing in me.� Still suffering the effects of ring rust, Tuaman said, “I need to get my timing back. It’s going to take some time.� He also said he was “readjusting his style last minute� to cope with Okine instead of Puritty, “because we didn’t know who I was fighting.�

Also on Friday’s fight card are several top prospects from New York City and Puerto Rico. From the Caribbean, Jose Nieves (15-0-2, 8 KOs) and Hector Sanchez (7-0, 2 KOs) will be fighting, and the crew from the Big Apple includes “Mean� Joe Green (14-0, 8 KOs), Peter “Kid Chocolate� Quillen (7-0, 6 KOs), who said “I’m loving this ride and expect to do big things,� Jorge Teron (12-0-1, 8 KOs), who is training with Mark Breland and admitted he “can’t wait till Friday,� Joe Castillo (1-0, 1 KO) and former Marine John Schneider (1-0, 1 KO) from Yonkers, Darrel Madison, who is making his pro debut and wanted to “Thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for making this possible,� and last but not least, Cindy Serrano (13-0-1, 7 KOs), who alerted those in the house with vision problems, “I’m not only beautiful, but I can fight.�

Tickets for Friday night’s fights at Roseland Ballroom are priced from $50 to $200 and are available by calling Gotham Boxing at 212.755.1944 or at Ticketmaster.