After failing to beat Monte Barrett, Wayne McCullough wonders if it is the end of the road for David Tua.
A bad night, or the end of the road for Tua?
Both David Tua and Monte Barrett had fought for, and lost, world championship fights and it was likely that at least Tua was hoping to get another shot in the near future.
Barrett was coming off three losses and has looked well past his best since being a contender at the beginning of his career.
Tua has had two wins following his break from the sport and hasn't lost a fight since August 2001 when he was defeated by Chris Byrd. His other two losses were to Ike Ibeabuchi in 1997 and Lennox Lewis In 2000. All of his losses were points defeats over 12 rounds.
Tua, who is 37 years old, was 5 inches shorter than the older Barrett, who is 39. Tua lost his one and only title opportunity to Lewis, but has beaten four former champions; John Ruiz by KO 1, Michael Moorer by KO 1, Oleg Maskaev by TKO 11 and Hasim Rahman by TKO 10.
Despite that he has never picked up a world belt so he has probably been the best uncrowned heavyweight champion of the last 10 or so years.
The 1992 Olympic bronze medallist for New Zealand, Tua, weighed in at 237½ lbs which showed that he was in good shape. Barrett weighed 225 lbs.
Favourite
Tua was the favourite and was looking for a good win that would give him a shot at one of the champions after that, hoping to finally pick up the world title that had been evading him for so long.
Last weekend's fight took place in Atlantic City. This was not unfamiliar territory for Tua since he had boxed there 13 times, winning them all, including 12 by KO. The fight was scheduled for 12 rounds with Tua's WBO Asian Pacific and WBO Oriental belts on the line. Barrett stated beforehand that no matter the outcome of the fight - win, lose or draw - he was going to retire.
Tua came out straight away looking for the quick KO, landing rights to Barrett's head and trying to land some left hooks. But Barrett had other plans and fought almost perfectly off the back foot, catching his aggressive opponent with clean scoring rights and short lefts that seemed to have an effect.
Although Tua controlled and won most of the early rounds, his stamina level dropped in the second half of the fight which is when Barrett did his best scoring.
Barrett's plan to stay on the outside to counter his shorter opponent prevented Tua from getting any real power shots off even though he was coming forward, and Barrett continued to win the rounds.
Dropped
The final round was Tua's worst as he got dropped by a left hook to his chin as the pair exchanged punches. This was the first time Tua has ever been down and even though he was hurt, Barrett did not jump on him to try for the finish.
Tua also lost a point in this round for throwing Barrett to the canvas and this cost him dearly.
The disappointing fight ended in a draw with scores of 115-111 for Tua and 113-113 twice. This may well have been Barrett's last outing and he did to Tua what no other fighter has been able to do by knocking him down.
Tua was expected to win easily and quickly but he didn't. He lacked endurance and control of his punches. Is the Tuaman, or Tuamanator as he is now known, finished or was this just a very, very bad night for him?
He was fortunate enough to have been rewarded with a draw so where does this decision leave him?
