David Tua - a professional boxer from Samoa, speaking in the heavy weight category. He achieved considerable success in both amateur and professional boxing careers. His achievements include a bronze medal at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, 3rd place at the Sydney World Championship in 1991 in the 91 kg category, a triumph in the battle for the WBA international heavyweight champion against John Ruiz.
Biography and successes in an amateur career
He was born on November 21 in 1972 in the city of Apia, Western Samoa. Since childhood, he became interested in boxing. At the age of 14, he enrolled in the local boxing section, where he began to show good results and achieve first victories. In 1990, he became the champion of an amateur tournament among boxers of Oceania Nukualof (Tonga). In 1991, he took 3rd place in the world boxing championship (in the category of up to 91 kg), held in Sydney (Australia). In 1992, he achieved a triumph in the championship of Oceania and won a bronze medal at the Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona.
David Tua fights in a professional career
The debut in the professional boxing league happened in December 1992. In the period from 1992 to 1996, he held 22 matches. They all ended in a knockout victory. Thanks to this, the Samoan heavyweight was awarded the title fight in 1996 against John Ruiz.
It was a fight for the title of international WBC world champion. Bookmaker quotes for this fight were in favor of John Ruiz, who already had considerable achievements in boxing. However, the zeal for victory and the ardent pressure of the young debutant could not be broken. In the 19th second of the first round, the fight ended with a victorious knockout! The eminent John Ruiz fell on the platform of the ring from the crushing heavy blow of a young Samoan boxer and could not get up for several minutes. It was a high-profile announcement by the entire boxing community from a Samoan boxer.
David Tua, whose knockouts frightened all his potential rivals, became a real celebrity.
In the same year, Tua knocked out professionals such as Anthony Cooks and Darroll Wilson. It is noteworthy that these fights also ended in the first round. To the point, to note that the boxer Darroll Wilson, before meeting with the "Samoan machine" in his track record did not have a single defeat. David Tua, whose knockouts frightened all his potential rivals, became a real celebrity.
Aggressive boxing, David Tua and his ranked duel
At the end of December 1996, two heavyweights met in the ring - Tua and Aizonraiti. It was the most unprincipled and aggressive fight on the part of both athletes. They have already met before, but it was in amateur boxing. Then Aizonraiti achieved success by breaking the Samoan "Terminator" (nickname Tua). And now, David Tua, motivated to impossibility, was determined to do everything to avenge the offender.
The fight was long and sweaty, the rivals fought until the last 12 round, in the middle of which the outcome of the fight was decided. After another successful attack, Tua pressed Aizonraichi to the ropes and inflicted several crushing heavy uppercuts. After this, Aizonraiti lost control of the situation and missed another blow to the chin, after which he lost his balance and went into a deep knockdown. The Nigerian heavyweight subsequently still managed to get up, but the referee decided to stop the fight. The victory was awarded to the Samoan "Terminator". This fight was a record in terms of throws and hit the top 5 fights in the heavy weight category.
Fight: Terminator Tua vs Oleg Maskaev
In April 1997, Tua met in the ring with Russian Oleg Maskaev. The fight ended in the 11th round, when Maskaev missed the strongest direct hit and fell to his knees. After a ten-second countdown from the referee, Oleg got up, but failed to defend himself from David's next attacks. As a result, the battle was stopped, and Maskaev for a long time appealed to the judges about the premature stop of the battle.
New record in a fight with Ike Ibeabuchi
In June 1997, a meeting was held between two invincible contractors - David Tua and Ike Ibeabuchi. In this battle, a new record was recorded for the number of throws, which were 1730. Ike boxed in a new style. He did not run away from the attacks of Tua, he met them with his tough counter-punches. As a result, the victory was given to Ibeabuchi, who largely outscored the opponent by points. In turn, David Tua did not argue with the decision of the judges, but simply accepted to properly study his mistakes.
The first fight with Rahman, the championship match with Lennox Lewis
In 1998, in the qualifying fight for the IBF title, two heavyweights clashed their foreheads. This time, David's rival was the undefeated Hasim Rahman. During the battle, Rahman looked fresher and more active. Tua, in turn, succumbed to the adventure, and several times applied his crown jam after a resounding gong. There was a lot of controversy and controversy over this incident, but it is worth noting that Rahman rightfully won, albeit on points.
In June 2000, the next battle of the Samoan "Terminator" took place. Here he knocked out Lunch of Sullivon in the first round. This fight turned out to be an easy training session for David Tua before the upcoming fight with the absolute champion Lennox Lewis.
In November 2000, this long-awaited match took place. Tua was extremely aggressive in this battle. From the first seconds he launched quick attacks, but was soon surprised by the phenomenal Lewis technique. The Briton defended perfectly and delivered heavy retaliatory strikes. The whole battle was built on the blind attack of Tua and the intellectual defense of Lennox. As a result, Lewis simply “retrained” his opponent with crown jabs and won on points.
