Ringwalk Tua v Lewis - A Million dollar maybe

Boxing's contribution to movies is legendary, a subject made for dramatic exploration and done exceptionally well more often than not.

Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull, Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby, even Sylvester Stallone's long Rocky road.


Well into an interview with David Tua, the one-time Kiwi world heavyweight title contender, the subject of boxing movies comes up.

"I really love Cinderella Man - that's exactly what we've been going through," says Tua, his George Foreman-ish figure upright in an overly soft chair at his Onehunga gym.

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Having just signed the contract for a much anticipated fight against his fellow Kiwi Shane Cameron, Tua is about to embark on what he hopes will be the comeback of comebacks, one that will take care of Cameron and then unfinished business in America.


Tua is open, welcoming and relaxed as we talk but the bitter battle that has dominated his life flows easily into the conversation.

Nearly six years ago, he began a long, acrimonious and still unresolved legal battle with his old management team which included Kevin Barry, a man once portrayed as a father figure to Tua as he made his way in America's shark-infested boxing waters.



Tua is having to get on with life, and it hasn't been easy.




"People ask me what it is like walking down to the ring on the day of a fight. Everybody is different, but for me the day of a fight is like it is on the last day for a condemned man on death row.

"You've got trainers on both sides, like the guards, taking you down. A 500-metre walk becomes like a two-mile walk. So many things are revealed about yourself.

"It's not like rugby where you can say, hey man, take my spot. When they let you in through the ropes, it's like the guy being strapped down.

"Then you are in the ring and reality kicks in - man I'm going to fight for my life. This is where all the hard work comes in and yet it could end, smack, just like that. It is very addictive. I live for moments like that."

The Lewis fight might always niggle away at him deep inside because he performed way below his best, although Tua says he has come to terms with it.

It was only last year that he was able to sit down, with a journalist mate, and watch the fight from go to whoa. He needed to see what happened during his tumble in the gambling jungle.

"Actually, my conclusion was you haven't done too bad for a dishwasher," he says.

For now, Tua is operating without a manager, although the American promoter Cedric Kushner is in his corner.

Old training allies, American Roger Bloodwater and Lee Parore, will guide his campaign. Linking with Bloodwater, whom Tua first met when part of the Duva Main Events camp, means he may train in America for the Cameron fight.

Ahh. America. Because that's what it is all about, you sense.

For all of its downsides, American boxing is a fascinating world.

Not many of us can tell first hand Don King stories - Tua even manages to laugh at himself for his famous TV gameshow gaffe of requesting "O for awesome" as he describes the infamous impresario's way with words.

At my prompting, Tua recalls other characters from the American gyms, with their dangling, glittering chains and inappropriate, flashy boxing attire. He probably qualified as one of them, teased up hair and all, for a while.

If Tua should beat Cameron, then America may call again, and it will be back to the mecca of boxing with its million-dollar maybes.

For every James Braddock, there are battered hopefuls forever trying to get back up off the canvas.

"I guess those days are gone. I lived it, I enjoyed it," he says wistfully, after recounting one of his anecdotes.

Gone? Perhaps not, if he wants another title shot.

Becoming a heavyweight contender is as beguiling as sport gets. If David Tua did return to America, you wonder how his identity would survive this time, and what he would really find there.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• david
• tua
• shane
• cameron
• heavyweight
• boxing
• nz
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• tuaman
• las
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• kevin
• barry

[imbeachasbro]

That's not the same Tua who beat Shane.

[nzheraldtv]

Thank you for your thoughts, incorrect as they are.

The New Zealand Herald is bound by the laws of our country and respects the decisions and directions of their findings. You have no idea of the filming that happened outside the ring which was interesting, and by calling people idiots without having a grasp of the facts reflects on you, not nzheraldtv.

[TextBookPuncher1]

Eventhough tua lost he gave a good effort and looked like a beast

[qldbaby]

awesome ring entrance fuck imagine the atmosphere yeahhhhhhhhhhhhh

[nzauckpat20]

fuck tua's built like a tank

[HorneySamoan]

Kiwis like Tua hit hard but Tua got taken to school by Lenox

[siwooot]

Lewis had a really sick ring walk though

[MsPsycho29]

Lennox played matador and Tua played the bull. The bull got barbed and stabbed and the matador won. As usual.

[samoanking123]

@imbeachasbro no its the same tua lennox aint shane

[MalamzPS]

@y2king32 man you are stupid

[ThePritch01]

nice ring walk,unfortunately lennox lewis was his opponent and lewis was way too good for tua, lewis won every round,lewis one of the best heavyweights ever

[NormenBatez]

That was pretty cool