David Tua vs. Demetrice King (vid)

:conf Well, here it is:

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You can see evidence of all of Tua's recent trends, which include both the improvements/additions the mature version has made to his game and the dulled edge of his original strengths. There's the heightened use of the jab, and the commitment to volume body punching. There's the constant leaning, forearm-shoving, and high-blocking that has become his trademark style of coming forward while defending. There's the badly diminished and under-used but still present left hook. It clearly still has power behind it, and he does double and triple it up on occasion...but it's about 60% of what it was in his prime in both speed and raw force. He also doesn't change the record much.

As for King...well...he was certainly willing to keep meeting Tua halfway swallowing jabs and laughing them off. He also did stand up to those intermittent hooks fairly well. That's about as nicely as you can spin his performance. Useless offensive fighter.

It is what it is. :!: Tua can hustle his way to undramatic decisions over this kind of heavyweight, and he can probably still flatten more vulnerable types (who are stationary). This string of recent performances in no way suggests that Tua has anything to offer the champs, or even the very top contenders. In fact, he doesn't even look to be on pace to necessarily win the Barrett rematch.

 

It was actually this morning, just over five hours ago. :yep (NZ is fifteen hours ahead of US Eastern time).

Yeah, I don't know what Tua gains out of decision wins over rugged spoilers like Ahunanya and King. He isn't tweaking his skills or trying many new things. He isn't looking good. I guess all the rounds keep him from getting rusty, but..

 

As if the Ahunanya and first Barrett fight weren't enough of a wake-up call. :yep

The blowout of Cameron created a lot of optimism, but it's been fizzling ever since.

 

Yes, indeed! Unfortunately the timing works out such that it's a choice between the Klitschko-Solis card (which includes Ola Afolabi vs. Lubos Suda) and the Rigondeaux-Casey card (which includes Fitzgerald-Belghecham).

Both cards are attractive, but at the end of the day I'm more eager to see Solis get beat up. Hopefully Rigo-Casey and Fitz-Belg wind up on Youtube as quickly as Tua-King did.

I was actually still up at about 5am and pondering looking into an attempt to watch the Tua-King card and do a RBR...but sleepiness and the realization that it would be a futile gesture won out. :yep

 

The true climax of the Tua comeback saga is going to play out for better or worse over the next year, maybe into the beginning of 2013.

By then, he'll either have fulfilled his dream and snatched a belt or had it squashed and given up.

The last couple of years have seen him squirming his way free of his Maori TV contract, which held him back from pursuing big name fights overseas due to some weird broadcast-exclusivity arrangement they had (or something...the Kiwi posters can elaborate a bit more than that). Now that he's free of that contract - as of the King fight - it is sink or swim. He'll either start fighting and beating top contenders right away - or he won't (and never will...and given his age, it's doubtful he'll have the patience to just stick around toiling in mediocrity. He legitimately wants that prize that's eluded him for so long - a world title...and if he isn't on track within the next year either due to fights not coming together or getting derailed with a loss, he'll probably call it quits).