What Happened To Team Tua?

If Tua had Marciano's head on his shoulders and a good trainer, he might have been an ATG!

 

Kevin Barry took over from Main Events and took over his training from Shields.

Basically took advantage of Tuas trust in him and ruined him

 

When Dan Duva passed away he left control of Main Events to his wife Kathy. Lou and Kathy didnt get along so him and his other son Dino went off on their own with Tommy Brooks and started Duva Boxing but didnt have the money to resign Tua and some of the other name fighters.

Main Events resigned Vernon Forrest and Fernando Vargas, but let go of David Tua, Andrew Golota, and Zab Judah. Tua was signed by the newly formed Dan Goosen fronted America Presents who also signed David Reid and Hector Camacho Jr as their flagship fighters.
Goosen was notorious for protecting rankings and he basically left Tua idle and gave him BS fights to protect his IBF mandatory ranking. During that time, Tua really went down the tubes. Gone was Duva Shields and Bloodworth, and in came Kevin Barry. He fought less consistently against softer opposition and started to come into fights in poor condition. To me he was horribly out of shape against Lewis.
I think Tua would have performed better had he fought Lewis around the time he faced Ibeabuchi, he was quicker and in better condition. Against Lewis he took his money and went home.

 

tua is a short fighter who basically tries to win by landing wild haymakers in todays game that style would get him and his team nowhere tua has been sporting a huge beer gut in his last couple of fights and you can clearly see with that punch he has lost a step:think

 

I was in the gym with these guys when Main Events was cranking. Can you imagine going into the gym and Tommy Brooks, Lou Duva, George Benton, Roger Bloodworth and Ronnie Shields and Pernell Whitaker were there working with fighters? Thats how it was... They had a good thing going for a while and had some good fighters that came out of the olympics.

 

:deal

 

Tua left Barry after Barry among other things brought Martin Pugh in to Tuas company as a director. Pugh used money from the company to refurbish his house and live the high life and instead of buying property Tua wanted put it in the company name and when Tua tried to sell it Pugh and Barry tried to take 1/3 each of the sale. They took advantage of Tuas naivety both financially and Barry was woeful as Tuas trainer. Tua had/has big tax bills and went through a long layoff and court case due to the greed of Barry and Pugh

 

Team Tua is no longer serious about winning the title in 2010... Team Tua is merely into making greenbacks fast and safe as possible... Tua is now being micro-managed for safety reasons.... He is no longer a true contender.... Tua is a fugazzi in '10...

MR.BILL

 

Do you really believe that Tua was motivated to fight Lewis?
I'd say he lost most of his motivation after he dropped the disputable decision to Ike Ibeabuchi.

Sadly, by 2000 Tua was a complete slob, 245lbs is a horrible weight for a 5'10" fighter. :verysad

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However, I don't mean to devalue Lennox's win, Tua was very hyped up even when fat, so in the context of such hype, it was a valuable win.

 

I agree. He still would've lost, just not 11-1 lost, but I agree.

Weight alone wasn't the problem though, around 253 he whacked the normally durable Obed Sullivan out in 1 at the start of 2000. But just as bad was the lack of quality ring time in the interrim.

Eugenia Williams screwed up a fair few people with her scorecard in Lewis-Holy I. Division was put on hold for an extra 7 months, which ultimately ended up scuppering the plans of both Tua and Ibeabuchi, for one thing. Otherwise Tua could've fought in late '99 or early '00 instead.