A piece compliments of the Sunday News, and friend of TSS, John Matheson….

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THINGS just got serious in David Tua’s camp.

Sunday News understands a deal is close to being inked to pitch Tua against
American Chris Arreola an undefeated world top 20 ranked knockout machine tagged
The Nightmare.

Tua’s New York based promoter Cedric Kushner is in negotiations with the iconic
US boxing networks HBO and Showtime for “a big fight.”

And last night Tua’s trainer Roger Bloodworth confirmed the opponent they are
looking at is Arreola, a 26-year-old, 6′4 Californian with a career record of 23
wins including an impressive 21 knockouts.

While no deal has been done yet, the very fact Arreola is being considered
confirms Tua undefeated in seven fights since returning from a two-year hiatus
in 2005 wants to step up the level of his opponents.

“David is ready for bigger fights,” Bloodworth said. “He is tired of fighting
the smaller fights.

“You get to that point where you question how many times you can fight guys who
don’t give you competition. It’s hard to train for those fights.

“It’s hard to get up to fight guys you don’t perceive to be on your level. If
you perceive they are of an equal standard or have the potential to get there
then you prepare better.”

If the fight gets the green light Tua (now ranked 23rd in the world) and Arreola
(16th) will get it on in June.

If the camps can not agree on terms Tua who confirmed plans for a fight in March
had been shelved would line up against a similar fighter in June.

Tua had not been in the ring since his second round knockout against Cerrone Fox
in September but Bloodworth was unconcerned about his charge not being busy
recently.

“Even though it has been a while since he last fought, if he is given sufficient
time in training camp he should be able to show well,” Bloodworth said.

“(Arreola) should be a good fight for him. He’s a strong kid with a good record
… it’ll be a good test for David and he’ll train accordingly.

“The truth is, David has had enough fights. He doesn’t need to be in the ring
every other month now because a lot of the changes we’ve made to his style are
second nature to him now.

“We just need a good (10 week) camp to get him into shape ready for action.”

Kushner confirmed further meetings with Showtime and HBO for the June fight will
continue this week.

“There’s a lot of interest in David every where I go,” he said after attending
the weigh-in to today’s unification bout between IBF and IBO champ Wladimir
Klitschko and the WBO’s belt holder Sultan Ibragimov.

Meanwhile, New Zealand’s other boxing heavyweight Shane Cameron now ranked 71st
in the world is expected to announce an opponent for his April 11 date in
Auckland later this week.