Was David Tua Ducked By The Champs In His Comeback?

Interesting thought but considering Monte Barrett whooped him twice, and Haye and Solis had already feasted upon Barrett, I don't think so.

 

I gather he got ranked by the WBO when he beat Shane Cameron because he won the WBO Orient and Pacific title or some such bauble — the organizations usually attack a ranking to those.

At the time, Wlad was WBO champ while holding the IBF, right? So he’s swapping off mandatories. Being ranked in the WBO doesn’t get you qualified to fight for the other organizations’ titles. I’m not sure what non-mandatory defenses Wlad made during this period, but Tua was pretty much just a guy by then — I don’t think his name recognition post-Lennox amounted to a lot. Not like he was big-time PPV material.

Bottom line, Tua didn’t do much on his comeback to make himself worthy of a title shot. If he wanted one, it was a crowded scene and he needed to knock off some other guys to put himself closer to the front of the line.

 

I think Tua wanted to make money regionally before trying his hand at a step up with Barrett in Atlantic City, then that didn't work out as he imagined it would and he returned to Oceania to make some cash before calling it a career. I didn't think Tua wanted to fight out of his pocket as you mentioned he passed on Chris Arreola. It's interesting, but I never took him as a real contender during his comeback personally despite absolutely loving his devastating KO of Shane Cameron.

 

None, Wlad only defended in mandos, zero vols during his reign.

 

Tremendous name and promotional value? I don’t see it. People had heard of him. Boxing fans had seen him fight. But there weren’t people lining up to see him as a star attraction at this point. He had fallen off the face of the earth and looked timid in his last high-profile fight (Lennox). You’re acting like he was Ali or Frazier or something … he was, at this point, just a guy.

So Wlad (the only champ he was qualified to meet as only the WBO ranked him) is supposed to say ‘oooh, Tua looks beatable … let’s fight him!’ You’re saying his qualifications are (a) he had a bit of a name from his exploits several years gone by, (b) he beat a guy nobody had ever heard of to get a WBO ranking, and (c) he didn’t look good at this point (which is rather absurd to say a guy deserves a title shot because he’s struggling in fights against guys who aren’t household names in their own households).

You said it yourself: he turned down opportunities to fight contenders. This isn’t on the champion for not fighting Tua — it’s on Tua for not doing what he could have done or needed to do to earn a title shot. He’s not entitled to that and his resume post-retirement is not impressive enough to make a case that he deserved a shot.

 

Tua attempts to get back his shape and skills failed. At some moment Wlad Klitchko sensing easy prey offer him a title fight, but thankfully Tua decline offer, saying that he is not ready. Later he says “I don’t want to die in the ring”. Looks like his wife keep pushing him to the ring until they get divorced.

 

By that time he was fighting on the low-tier casino circuit or in New Zealand. If he was getting TV exposure in the U.S., I missed it (and it wasn’t on a major carrier). He was out-of-sight/out-of-mind to anyone but the most engaged true fight fans, and that doesn’t make one a box office attraction.

So I disagree on the idea that he could carry a major promotion. If he could do that, he would have been headlining in Vegas or Madison Square Garden, not the faraway places he was fighting.

Again, Wlad is the only champion he could face because only the WBO ranked him. Wlad was fighting mandatories. He was filling arenas in Germany and had great marketing and Euro TV deals (with HBO occasionally picking up a defense here or there). I don’t think Tua would have brought any extra money or attention to a Wlad title fight.

I get that you like the guy and wish he had gotten another shot, but the truth is he pissed away the shot he got fighting in third gear and he didn’t fight anyone of note on his comeback to make a splash that would have gotten him a title fight. Geez, turning down Chris Arreola is a pretty good sign that you’re not prime-time material.

 

The klitchkos would have played with Tua.

 

Not sure how highly ranked or what his marketability was by that point. He could still fight no doubt but not sure he was title material at that stage

 

lol Tua didn’t deserve a shot in his heyday, beating all of one ranked contender, he definitely didn’t deserve a shot when he was a shell of himself.

 

Sure he did. He beat more guys who would win titles than Foreman.