Samoans will wear their red Samoan ulafala as the Samoan Champion, with the famous left hook, David “Tuaminator” Tua gets into the ring.
He will be fighting New York’s Monte “Two Guns” Barrett tonight (eastern time), in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
This long scheduled fight was planned for Brazil, but since this will be Barrett’s last time in the ring, they have decided to move the fight, to where Monte, has never lost a fight, in Atlantic City.
PCS-TV Channel 11, which brought us the Tua-Ahunanya fight early this year has secured the rights to air the Tua-Barrett fight.
According to boxingnews.com, the heavy-handed Tuaman has been instilled as an overwhelming favorite at the books against the 39-year old Barrett who has dropped his last three fights against top-20 contenders.
Tua himself has run off an 8-fight winning streak by facing a who’s who of heavyweight journeyman over the last 7 years. The overwhelming boxing betting odds on Tua made our boxing picks staff scratch our heads. In recent bouts Tua has looked sloppy both physically and technically.
On the latest update on the fight, during their official weigh in, released by Michael Woods of the Sweet Science, Monte Barrett ignored his salad, the bread basket, and the ice tea in front of him at the Palm Steakhouse in Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon press conference hyping his Saturday night showdown against David Tua.
He stared straight ahead, and only occasionally, did a remark, by event promoter Joe DeGuardia, or Tua promoter Cedric Kushner, prompt him to change his facial expression.
That expression, I couldn't read it. Was it nerves? Tua is a fearful hitter, and even if he is 37, one can be pretty certain that his neuron shifting left hook is still capable of rendering Barrett, now 34-9, into a state of less than full consciousness. It didn't come off as super confident, it must be said, and if Barrett wasn't in fact feeling like a world conqueror, like it was agiven that he'd be the one to untrack the comebacking Tua's march to a title shot, he couldn't be blamed.
The North Carolina-born, longtime Queens, NY resident, who turned 39 on May 26, has lost his last three fights (to David Haye, Odlanier Solis and Alex Ustinov), and has been shifted, firmly and conclusively, into the role of gatekeeper.
"This is my last fight," he said of the tussle with Tua (51-3-1 with 43 KOs; No. 2 WBO), which is the main event of a pay-per-view event, TNT at the Tropicana, in AC. "I won't be fortunate enough to be heavyweight champion. And this fight isn't about money, it's about redemption."
"I feel restored," he said. I'm still in love with boxing. But win, lose or draw, I am done with fighting completely."
In the early 2000, Tua was widely regarded as one of the best heavyweights in the world, knocking out no less than four former heavyweight champions in John Ruiz, Oleg Maskaev, Michael Moorer, and Hasim Rahman. In his only title shot against Lennox Lewis, Tua lost a 12-round decision in which he was unable to take any of the steam out of Lewis. While he regrets the outcome of the fight, he equally acknowledges it today as a necessary career builder.
This is his last stunt at lasting success, and he’s sure not going to go out without a fight.
He said, “I believe more importantly than all of the other things that it wasn’t my time. I really believe that because if things would have gone my way I really believe me and you wouldn’t be talking right now, and more importantly, I believe I would have lost my identity.
"When I was away from the game through other managerial problems, I looked back at that title fight and I thank God that it didn’t go my way. I don’t want to say it in the sense that I’m ungrateful or any other things because I love the sport of boxing and I’ve always appreciated and respected the support of the fans. But for me, Lennox was one of those great champions of that time.”
The graciousness of Tua is something that has been present since the early stages of his career. It continues to deepen as he becomes wiser with age.
While Tua is unwilling to get into the nature of the managerial dispute that ended his run the first time around, many believe it was sparked by money. If so, it would fall into a long line of boxing disputes related to trainers and fighters. At any rate, it seems to have taken a toll on Tua, who says that at one point he didn’t know himself if he’d ever get back into the boxing ring.
“I didn’t ever think I’d see the light at the end of the tunnel. I never thought I’d be able to break through to the other side, so it’s quite humbling to be speaking to you and talking about boxing. It’s a great honor to be given a second chance.”
Now, with two wins since his return, bets are on Tua winning.
A victory would make him a prime contender and bring a freshness to the division that has been notably absent for some time.
