David Tua is a Samoan professional boxer who competed in the heavyweight division. He has achieved considerable success both in his amateur and professional boxing career. Among his achievements, one can single out a bronze medal at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, 3rd place at the World Championships in Sydney in 1991 in the category up to 91 kg, a triumph in the fight for the title of international champion according to the WBA heavyweight title against John Ruiz.
Biography and success in an amateur career
Born November 21, 1972 in Apia, Western Samoa. From childhood, he became interested in boxing. At the age of 14, he enrolled in the local boxing section, where he began to demonstrate good results and achieve his first victories. In 1990, he became the champion of the amateur tournament among boxers in Oceania Nukualofa (Tonga). In 1991, he took 3rd place in the world boxing championship (in the category up to 91 kg), held in Sydney (Australia). In 1992, he triumphed at the Oceania Championships and won a bronze medal at the Barcelona Summer Olympics.
David Tua fights in his professional career
The debut in the professional boxing league happened in December 1992. Between 1992 and 1996had 22 fights. All ended in victory by knockout. 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. At the 19th second of the first round, the fight ended with a victorious knockout! The eminent John Ruiz fell to the platform of the ring from a crushing heavy blow of a young Samoan boxer and could not get up for several minutes. It was a loud statement from the entire world boxing community from the Samoan boxer.
David Tua, whose knockouts terrified all his potential rivals, has become 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. It is worth noting that boxer Darroll Wilson, before meeting with the “Samoan machine”, had not a single defeat in his track record. David Tua, whose knockouts terrified all his potential rivals, has become a real celebrity.
Aggressive boxing, David Tua and his rated fight
At the end of December 1996, two heavyweights met in the ring - Tua and Aizonright. It was the most unprincipled and aggressive fight from both athletes. They have met before, but it was in amateur boxing. ThenIcesonrighte was successful in overcoming the Samoan "Terminator" (nickname Tua). And now, impossibly motivated by David Tua, he was determined to do everything to take revenge on the offender.
The fight was long and sweaty, the opponents fought until the last 12th round, in the middle of which the outcome of the fight was decided. Tua, after another successful attack, pinned Aizonright to the ropes and landed several devastating heavy uppercuts. After that, Aizonrighty 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 managed to get up, but the referee decided to stop the fight. The victory was awarded to the Samoan "Terminator". This fight set a record in terms of thrown punches and was in the top 5 fights in the heavyweight 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 blow and fell to his knees. After a ten-second countdown from the referee, Oleg got up, but failed to defend himself against David's next attacks. As a result, the fight was stopped, and Maskaev appealed to the judges for a long time to stop the fight prematurely.
New record in the fight with Ike Ibeabuchi
In June 1997, there was a meeting between two invincible contenders - David Tua and Ike Ibeabuchi. In this fight, a new record for the number of thrown punches was recorded, there were 1730 of them. Hayk boxed in a newstyle. He did not run away from Tua's attacks, he met them with his hard counter punches. As a result, the victory was given to Ibeabuchi, who largely bypassed the opponent on points. In turn, David Tua did not argue with the decision of the judges, but simply took it upon himself to study his mistakes.
First fight with Rahman, championship fight with Lennox Lewis
In 1998, two heavyweights clashed head-on in an IBF title qualifier. This time, David's opponent was the undefeated Hasim Rahman. During the fight, Rahman looked fresher and more active. Tua, in turn, succumbed to the adventure, and applied his signature jam several times after the ringing gong. There was a lot of controversy and controversy over this incident, but it is worth noting that Rahman won by right, albeit on points.
In June 2000, the next battle of the Samoan Terminator took place. Here he knocked out Obed Sullivon in the first round. This fight turned out to be an easy workout for David Tua before the upcoming fight with the undisputed champion Lennox Lewis.
In November 2000, this long-awaited duel took place. Tua was extremely aggressive in this fight. He started fast attacks from the first seconds, but was soon surprised by the phenomenal technique of Lewis. The Briton defended superbly and delivered heavy retaliatory strikes. The whole fight was built around Tua's blind attack and Lennox's intellectual defense. As a result, Lewis simply "tapped" his opponent with crown jabs and won on points.
Against Tyson
For several years, the boxing community has dreamed of seeing a fight between the king of boxing and the Samoan "Terminator" - David Tua vs. Tyson. Many viewers saw in Tua some potential that could possibly stand up to Mike. However, this fight never happened for many reasons. Some bookmakers even accepted bets on this fight, in which David, although he was an outsider, was by no means far behind. It's no secret that this fight would add a new line to the history of legendary boxing confrontations.
